


Deeper

by Val_Creative



Category: Loveless
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Arson, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Child Abuse, Crossdressing Kink, Dubious Consent, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Future Fic, Hidden Epilogue, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Incest, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Memory Loss, Mind Manipulation, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Romance, Sexual Content, Smoking, Unplanned Pregnancy, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-06
Updated: 2013-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-03 15:01:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 13
Words: 23,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1071838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Val_Creative/pseuds/Val_Creative
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He could still remember the moment with unnatural clarity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

*

 

He could still remember the moment with unnatural clarity.

Exactly what darkness played off Seimei's young, unsmiling expression from behind the high collar of his trench-coat, the parallel of black in thick, silk strands whipping around his eyes… his indigo, ice-shard eyes that pretended to love and bled lunacy.

Soubi remembered how cold it was outside his apartment; his leather-gloved hands itched for a cigarette, at the very least to warm him, but instead dug deeper into his fur-lined pockets. He knew better, asking Seimei would have been pointless, and he knew consequences despite only being a mere twelve-years-old.

The direct order, how the high-pitch of his cunning voice never outright displayed emotion.

_Never come into my home._

And Soubi had never thought twice about the matter.

Though he could not have entered his Sacrifice's home, he had still taken to standing beyond the gates, lungs pulsing with fresh tobacco. He had liked the neighborhood well enough. The constant noises, the joyous laughter muffled through decorated panes of glass, the sounds of distant traffic, the smells of fruit and flowers, the abnormally friendly conversation with engaging residents.

Among the row of clean and nicely-angled brick apartments, his Master's stood out like an ugly sore.

Given Soubi's slightly older and beautiful appearance, _and_ impeccable manners, the neighbors had confessed their feelings of dislike towards the family openly and shamelessly to him. It was common knowledge that they were _bad news_.

How they never liked to keep appearances, a lack of respect for noise levels (they emphasized on the laughter that had not been kind and the screaming into all hours of the night). In a word, it terrified.

And it had not been surprising to him that the Aoyagi household was held together by such delicate circumstances; Soubi had seen the one or two bruises under a coat sleeve, but nothing severe.

Nevertheless… it was bizarre to think that Beloved had been _subjected_ to the punishment, and had not _given_ it out.

One afternoon, after his early morning classes across town, Soubi decided to roam the streets of the 'forbidden' area. Coming up to 'forbidden' house, a glare of light reflected off the edge of his left lens.

Glancing around, he located the source easily.

A shiny zipper on a jumper wiggling freely against wool material. The large-eyed child wearing the jumper shrieked happily as his miniature hands seized around his bouncing toy. Genuinely intrigued by the neglected toddler on the sidewalk, Soubi observed more closely. Tiny cat ears peeking shyly out of tousled pieces of hair, an adorable black tail wrapped around his chubby bare right leg. Kicking his prize that emitted a faint _squeak!_ , the three-year-old chased after his runaway ball unsupervised.

Right into the middle of rush hour.

Long, naked fingers clenched in anticipation, the newly-lit cigarette in his grasp breaking in two by the force.

Soubi hadn't come to terms with what had happened until he heard the blaring car horn. Then became very aware of a soft squishy weight leaning into his ribs, supported to his chest by a gawky embrace. Granted, his limbs hadn't known what to do with themselves.

Just inches from ramming into his legs, the angry driver of the gray vehicle made a rude gesture before punching his fist furiously into his steering wheel. The second time the car honked, the little boy in his rescuing arms released a loud, frightened bawl.

_"Ritsuka! **RITSUKA**!" _

His ten-year-old Sacrifice appeared to roughly snatch the child from his Fighter, hugging the wailing figure to his jersey and stroking the side of his tear-strained face as he whispered consolingly into his human ear. It had taken one disturbingly dark glare from Seimei to quiet the ruckus.

Taking his chances with maneuvering backwards into traffic, the now spooked driver sped away in reverse down the whole block.

Soubi's attention drew back to the odd pair.

 _"What did I tell you, Ritsuka?"_ Seimei scolded the little boy in his arms lightly, not at all acting bad-tempered, and rubbed his nose affectionately into the mess of black hair. _"Don't play with your things in the street. You know better than that… what if Mother had caught you?"_

'Mother' had not uttered any signs of friendliness, but rather rolled off his tongue grimly.

Not bothering to acknowledge his servant and the good deed, the boy turned right around into the gloom of his family's apartment with his precious cargo.

 

 

*

 

And that's when he learned Seimei's ultimate weakness. The one individual he enjoyed to physically touch; the welcomed visitor to sleep in his bed in the middle of a restless evening; the only soul in the world who seemed to deserve real love.

His little brother.

Soubi imagined to feel jealousy towards the runt, but somehow couldn't work the sentiments to actually feel it. He felt fondness for his Master, but that was the business of a Fighter and Sacrifice, wasn't it? He loved Seimei. He would protect and fight for him until death. It's what Seimei expected; it was what he was taught he existed for. Nothing else seemed important.

So the next time he saw Seimei's little brother, Soubi was slightly more prepared.

He wasn't prepared for falling in love.

That was far from his intentions.

He wasn't prepared for the worst to come after that.

 

 

*


	2. Chapter 2

 

*

 

His head _pounded_.

Automatically, one of his cold, shaking hands came up to touch the skin on his temple, flinching at the slight pressure his fingertips added onto the strain. Lying down didn't feel so good when completely awake.

His body didn't feel quite right—it felt wrong, bigger, tighter somehow.

Running his hands through his dark tangle of hair, Ritsuka took several moments of deep breathing to ease the room from the violent spinning motion his body felt like it was stuck permanently in. Once the terrible sensation faded, the young boy slowly crawled out of bed, cupping his palms over his morning-sensitive eyes to protect them from the callous slits of sunrays clouding Seimei's bedroom.

He reeked of sweat. A hot shower was seriously called for.

Flipping on the fluorescent lighting in the connected bathroom, the slumping teenager ran water into the sink, ready to take a handful to rub into his blurry vision—

—when it came back with crystal clearness.

Stunned, he stared into the mirror's reflection, his jaw visibly dropping as his trembling digits traced the space of where his ears were suppose to be.

_But they weren't there!_

The nearly identical stranger gaping back at him opened his mouth wider to unleash a noiseless scream.

_" **RITSUKA! RITSUKA-KUN, COME DOWNSTAIRS AND EAT! RITSUKA-KUN, I MADE YOUR FAVORITES!** "_

At the sound of his mother's high-pitched shrieks and the insistent banging on the bedroom door, the earless boy rushed out of the bathroom, torn between hiding under the bed and crying or burying himself under the blanket covers.

The pale sheer curtains by his window sidetracked him.

 

 

*

 

The fall from the second floor window bruised the sides of his arms badly. Luckily, the skin didn't break. Running wildly down one of the highways, fear and confusion prevented him from a clear feel of where he was going.

Maybe if he kept running…

This would all just go away…

A bad nightmare... _just a bad nightmare_...

Someone was waving him down.

Skidding to a stop in front of an unfamiliar high school, Ritsuka fell forward in time to be grabbed by the sleeves and propelled into the arms of a tall girl with a beanie and a pink side-ponytail.

"RITSUKA-kun! Why didn't you call Yuiko this morning? Are you not answering your phone again—is it Soubi? Did you two get into another fight? **_Oh_**!" Her bright blue eyes suddenly filled with sympathetic tears, alarming him with the wet warmth as one or two made contact with his cheek, "Don't tell me you broke up! Oh, Ritsuka, it's just so…"

Her fast-paced ranting broke up with a quiet sob and silence.

After a moment, he was forced away from being crushed by her enormous breasts, grateful for the air, but greatly unnerved by her next reaction. She stared at his hair then into his dark eyes, melancholy immediately replaced by shock.

"You…your ears…Rit—. "

Her curious hand stretching to touch his head suddenly was roughly knocked aside. Ritsuka looked at his own hands as if amazed by his quick reflexes and shouted deafeningly, causing the hot pink on the girl's face to fade into a milky sick tint, " _Who are you, lady? How do you know me!_ "

He jumped at the sound of his own maturing voice, finally taking the time to glance down at himself, only to pale and weaken.

" _What's going on…I don't understand this_ … _any of this_."

Joining alongside the girl, a shorter boy with long black hair and glasses squinted at him as if he were an interesting specimen.

"Aoyagi-kun, what did _you_ do last night?"

Yuiko elbowed him rudely aside and made a mad grab for the hyperventilating boy as he bolted the scene, missing by a couple inches of the collar of his burgundy fur jacket. Resigning to the fact that she couldn't catch him, Yuiko glared openly at her companion, "Look what you've done! Now Ritsuka-kun will sulk!"

Yayoi lowered his black and mint green cat ears slightly, whining pathetically, "What…did I do…?"

Furious blue gazed up, rounding out with relief as they focused on the handsome figure approaching.

"Soubi-san! Over here!"

The cat-boy sighed irritably, half tempted to curse.

"What are you both up to?" The ash-blond man smiled kindly with a cigarette between two perfect sets of teeth. Yayoi shrugged, crossing his arms and facing the exact opposite of the intruder, "We just saw your boyfriend a minute ago."

"Did he seem alright?"

The question was light, almost emotionless.

Yuiko tugged anxiously on the end of her hat, the frown on her expression troubling the older man, "We're not sure…"

"Which direction did he go?"

 

 

*

 

It was a rather tight fit.

Ritsuka dipped his head down as he climbed into the ground level circular playground tube, pulling his knees to his chest and letting it rise and fall rapidly as he tried to regain normal breathing. No one had followed him. He was sure of it.

The abandoned playground was a town away from his house; the only person who knew his secret hiding place was Seimei.

He squeezed his eyes shut firmly.

Where was he? Why wasn't his big brother there when he woke up that morning? Why did his mother sound so mad? Who were those people? How did they know him? As far as he knew, he didn't know any high schoolers.

Crunching of leaves.

The earless boy whirled his head around to stare horror-struck at the final stranger he'd met that day. An ash-blond man with shining, crooked glasses crouching through the opening of the tube, only inches from him, looked back at him somewhere between honest concern and fascination. His periwinkle eyes floated over the empty spots on Ritsuka's head.

Before the new arrival could speak, the first thrust himself backwards, sliding his body as far as possible from any physical contact. This didn't seem to alarm the man. He merely smiled humorlessly.

"Ritsuka."

Wine-colored eyes rounded. The boy's body came to a total standstill at the mention of his name from the lips of the handsome stranger. He stayed rooted even as a large, cool hand cupped his face, fingers curling to press gently into his jaw.

"Are you mad at me?" The man sounded sad. Not the hysterical tone like the girl had, but nevertheless, it rang truly hurt.

Ritsuka's voice quivered with every syllable.

"H-How do you know me?"

The hand disappeared almost instantly. The stranger's blond eyebrows scrunched together into a puzzled line. He made an indecisive move forward, proving to be a big mistake as the younger burst into unexpected tears, his face twisting into absolute distress, " _Don't touch me!_ "

Ritsuka lurched to the side, ugly childish tears rolling down his cheeks.

" _If you don't leave me alone, my big brother wi-will beat you up! When he f-finds me, you'll be in big trouble!_ "

The blond man softly touched the back of his shaking head, causing a scream of **_No!_** to sear into the delicate bone of their eardrums and echo through the cramped space.

"Is that an order, Ritsuka?"

Gasping and crying answered him

"I won't go away unless you order me."

" _Yes! Yes! Yes! **Yes**!_ "

Several moments passed where crying and hunger began to clench his stomach uncomfortably. Shivering with the passing day's temperature drop, the boy lifted his tear-stained face to see the opening unblocked.

And bathed with new moonlight.

 

 

*


	3. Chapter 3

 

*

 

" _Ritsuka."_

_A pair of black cat ears twitched in response, one of them flicking sideways inquisitively._

_"How do you feel about dressing up?"_

_The young man staring into the fulllength mirror in front of him dusted a piece of lint off of his peacoat, obviously not very interested in the question. Wine-colored eyes looked up momentarily at his ears as if annoyed by their very existence._

_"Alright, I guess."_

_The second occupant in the small bedroom, sitting on a nearby mattress and smoking his health away, asked, "How about dress fabrics?"_

_"They're soft...and nice. I guess."_

_Ritsuka Aoyagi stopped glaring at his appearance for several seconds to instead observe the man's reflection behind him, taking special care in absorbing the image of his  lavender irises peeking out dead of feeling behind round glasses. With a slight start, he felt his skin redden underneath his collar. They were, after all, such beautiful eyes to get lost into; and feeling as attracted as Ritsuka was, it was hard not to become jittery at a serious expression._

" _What about the material against your skin? Are you opposed to it?"_

_Luckily, Ritsuk's ogic was stronger than his overwhelming hormones. He suppressed them to frown suspiciously, turning right around, "I've never thought about it that deeply. What's this all about Soubi?"_

_A plume of silver-lined smoke furled around his face before the second answered calmly, a ghost of a smile masking the dark line of his mouth, "You're very pretty, Ritsuka. Pretty enough…to wear a dress for a special occasion…"_

_He scoffed, cat ears flattening, and muttered as his face pinkened, "Pervert."_

_Leave it to Soubi to suggest nonsense like that..._

_Within seconds, a tall shadow over him crushed his sulk with great affection. Surprised at his speed, Ritsuka jerked away only to find that the arms around him were far too nice and gentle to selfishly break away from. As they were both secretly hoping, he succumbed to the hold Soubi kept around his sixteen-year-old body._

_Though he might have only grown a foot and a half over the passing years, he still made a point to remind everyone that he was more than ready to take on adult duties. Preferably... the kind of duties that included Soubi and…increasing the steps in their relationship. His fighter, on the other hand, was completely ignorant of any and all nudging. Ritsuka was starting to believe that he was doing it on purpose._

_He gave up any last movement (not that he actually wanted to leave the cozy tobacco-scented embrace), digging the point of his chin into the blonde's bulky sweater to stare up fondly into lavender._

_Intimate white fingers slid underneath his face, dry and warm, massaging the sensitive flesh on his neck. For a couple moments in time, Ritsuka forgot his troubles, forgot that it was prohibited to have strange men in his bedroom at one in the morning and forgot that anyone passing by could see them through his brightly lit window-doors. Closing his glazed, desire eyes against the lovely sensation, Soubi's voice cut harshly through his pleasure._

_. . .damn him and his magical hands._

_"I can make it worth your while, Ritsuka."_

_The telltale sign of the man's smile suddenly manifested into a full-blown smirk as Soubi pressed his thin lips warmly to the smaller's bangs._

_He almost opened his mouth to make a comment when a wave of realization doused his burning sarcasm, causing his long black tail to tremble anxiously. His body shifted around in his lover's arms so that he could gaze right back into the mirror. Wide purple immediately fixed themselves on his cat ears, with both hands, Ritsuka tugged thoughtfully._

_"...Okay."_

His eye muscles twitched rigidly for a few seconds before releasing tension, the whites of his eyes disappearing as Ritsuka found himself fully conscious and heavily breathing. One of his hands absently rubbed his chest where he had felt a strange burning sensation only a moment ago peaking.

He felt very warm.

A thick, wool blanket had been tucked neatly around his frame, all the way up to his chin. Trying unsuccessfully to blink the pulsating pain from his head, he noticed a piece of paper taped to the ceiling of the tube he fell asleep in.

In lopsided but decorative handwriting:

_If you're feeling up to it, I'll have breakfast ready at the apartment. One block away. 300 Rosalie Drive. Second floor, seventh door. Here's the spare room key._

Sure enough, taped to the same side, he spotted a tiny copper key.

It wouldn't be far. And the man was nice enough to give him a blanket…

Why did he feel so uneasy about him? Why did he feel so…weird when he touched him? Ritsuka slowly stroked the back of his head, the memory of loving fingers faint now. Maybe he'd explain this whole situation…maybe…

It took him less then five minutes to get to the apartment door. Knocking once, he heard a male voice shout for him to come in, and tentatively he twisted the knob open. Ritsuka was immediately hit with comfortably warm air and hurried inside, rubbing his cold hands together from freezing outside.

The ash-blond man waved from the kitchen, smiling, before turning back to his cooking, "Don't be afraid to come sit by the table."

Blushing slightly from realization that it must have been painfully obvious that he didn't want to be there, Ritsuka slipped off the wool blanket and silently observed the other figure.

Long, blond strands were tied up almost girlishly in a high ponytail. Tied over a fleece black sweater and dark gray pants was a _very_ pink apron. But somehow, the stranger didn't care about the fact that someone else could see him in such an atrocious color.

"Hungry, Ritsuka?"

The teenager sulked into a chair, plopping down onto the seat, and reached for the porridge cereal that had been placed in front of him. After swallowing a mouthful, he gave a tiny nod in the man's direction signaling a _thank you_.

Soubi watched his Sacrifice begin with slight zeal in the task of eating, noting how gradually he lost interest in raising the spoon to his lips and found it more meaningful to stare blankly at the tablecloth. Ritsuka's thin shoulders gave an occasional shake. Soubi remained standing at the other end of the table, eyeing the damnable tear that had slide down a small, pale cheek.

"I don't understand where my brother is." The earless boy croaked, heaving a sob, "He should have been home when I woken up."

That nagging feeling in Soubi's stomach felt like it was going to boil over. He dreaded to know the answer for the question he asked.

"How old are you, Ritsuka?"

Wine-purple eyes looked up, glittering pathetically with tears, "I'm going to be eleven in two months." Ritsuka leaned forward seriously, lowering his voice to a frightened whisper, "Did _you_ take my ears?"

Eyes widened a second before the fragile glass item in his hands shattered onto the floor, the loud noise causing the younger occupant in the room to squeak, slamming his hands over his mouth.

"That was my fault." Soubi nearly fled to the other side of the room to get a broom and pan, cheeks flushing a thin layer of pink as he cleaned up the mess and cleared his throat awkwardly.

His guest lowered his shuddering hands, startled expression relaxing as he managed to change the conversation by pointing to a painting on the wall, "Did you do that?"

Soubi glanced up from the trashcan, following the length of Ritsuka's index finger to a dark blue and purple canvas hanging over his bed. With intricate, scratchy shadows of plants and butterflies etched into its foreground, his Sacrifice had been quite taken with its dark symbolism in the past. He had kept it around only to please him, other then that, he would have burned it.

He hated it. He hated painting. Simply because every time he picked up a brush, he always drew butterflies. He could not escape the little bastards no matter how hard he tried.

But Ritsuka had liked them.

As long as it had made him happy, Soubi was happy.

The college student said fondly, a small smirk plucking the corners of his mouth, "Yes, I did."

Wonder filled the boy's eyes, and he smiled serenely, "I like it." Ritsuka walked over to the painting, stroking the chunky frame almost shyly, his smile dropping, "It…seems familiar to me…like—"

His body lurched forward violently; his neck spasming once. Soubi threw aside the pan as soon as he saw Ritsuka's eyes roll up to the back of his head, skidding on his knees to catch his head before it could crash onto the hardwood floor paneling.

* * *

" _What are the Seven Moons?"_

* * *

_Grinning devilishly, the short cat-boy pointed his toes to reach up and pressed an innocent kiss on Yuiko's lips, pulling back as soon as possible. His satisfaction (about an alarmed girl squeal and mortified moan from Yayogi who nearly fainted on his feet) was not enough until he saw his Fighter gape shamelessly._

* * *

" _Put me down."_

" _Just let me hold you for a little bit longer."_

* * *

_Tiny frail creatures, they combined as they sped towards their target as a mixture of black, purple, and blue whizzing in front of him._

* * *

****

* ** _  
_**  


****

Hot air invaded his mouth.

Ritsuka opened his eyes to find his back to the ice-cold floor and the man…kissing him? He was crouched over him. Beautiful, lavender eyes squeezed shut, his velvet lips covering his still ones dominantly as he issued several breathes into him.

Wait…why?

 _ **Oh**_.

He wasn't breathing.

Coughing into him, Ritsuka indicated his return to the world of the living, trembling and sweating. The bespectacled man scooped him up into his arms, encouraging him to inhale until the fit passed. Wiping the snot off his nose with his sleeve, the earless boy gasped, "I saw…I saw—they"

"What did you see, darling?" He pushed dark bangs out of his welling eyes. Ritsuka struggled to keep his speech from breaking.

"There were butterflies. Thousands of them, Soubi. They were all going in one direction. Is that possible?"

The arms cradling him slackened. An unreadable emotion passed over the man's face, something the boy couldn't have known with his naïveté. Not flinching when… _Soubi_ pulled his face into the hollow of his throat, touching his face to his hair, he distinctly heard him mutter, "Don't worry about it."

 

 

*


	4. Chapter 4

 

*

 

It had been thirteen years since Soubi had dreamed so violently, so vibrantly in color and feeling that he almost believed that he had traveled into the past to that very moment.

* * *

 

_He waited patiently, cross-legged on the rug and completely at ease with his cigarette carton easily within reach. Old habit for nervous tendencies. But he had promised Ritsuka he would cut down, especially for tonight. Tonight was special._

_Out of the corner of his vision, he saw a slender figure materialize from the doorway of his bedroom._

_His Sacrifice twisted his hands anxiously together before clasping them behind him, the swishy hem of the calf-high dress he wore rustling as he shifted with bare feet uncomfortably from side-to-side._

_Soubi was rather surprised about how feminine Ritsuka actually looked with his hair down and in female clothing, the light blue of fabric gave a nice cool color against his pale features. He had made sure when he chose it that it would feel soft to the touch. He liked to see him in blues and purples but never in red. The color of violence and blood. A color that did not appropriately fit his pacifist nature._

_Piercing lavender eyes boldly strayed down the curve of Ritsuka's stomach to where the outline of his underwear could be seen through the thinness of the cloth, slightly dazed to find his groin tighten so quickly at the sight._

_The sixteen-year-old twitched his little cat ears, the pink stain on his nose and cheeks quite prominent as he muttered sullenly, "This is stupid."_

_Soubi fought back an amused smile at how nervous Ritsuka seemed and said encouragingly, walking up to him and wrapping his arms around him, "You look lovely." To his absolute delight, the younger only seemed to blush redder at his truthful statement._

_To give him some more reassurance, the adult slowly molded a firm kiss to his lips, not disappointed when he didn't feel Ritsuka respond. The astonishment from the gentleness of Soubi's actions, betrayed from Ritsuka's usually stoic eyes was all he could have hoped to find staring back at him._

* * *

Did Ritsuka dream of these things? Of these memories?

He didn't get a chance to ponder the thought deeper as Ritsuka awakened, groaning and sitting up from the pillows on his cot.

 

 

*

 

Another headache.

Moaning faintly under his breath, Ritsuka rubbed the flat of his palm against one of his eyelids. Blinking the haze of a dreamless sleep out of his eyes, he squinted up at Soubi who quickly disappeared into the kitchen.

 _Soubi?_ Where did that come from…?

He had called the man _Soubi_.

Was that his real name?

"Hey?"

A pair of composed periwinkle eyes met his tired purple from inside the second room, "Did you need something, Ritsuka?"

"Is your name Soubi?"

"Yes it is."

The earless boy cupped the side of his face into his right hand, face twisting up in genuine mystification. "Then how did I know that? I called you Soubi yesterday. I don't remember you telling me your name."

"I didn't." A sigh loosened his lips, and the tall stranger crossed the room to help him to his feet. "You are suppressing your memories." When Ritsuka cocked a confused eyebrow up at him, Soubi led him to the corner of the room where he dug an arm into a dresser drawer and pulled out a handheld mirror. "What do you see, Ritsuka?" he asked.

Wine-colored eyes narrowed thoughtfully in the mirror.

"A stranger."

Soubi corrected, giving the boy's arm he had within his grasp a brief but kindly squeeze, eyes never leaving the mirror's reflection, "This is you. How you are in the present. You lost your memory when you were a child and made a new Ritsuka. The one I know now."

Ritsuka tried to wrap his very puzzled mind around the concept, pursing his lips. "So…I have a split personality?"

"Not quite the phrase, but something very close to it. You formed these personalities mostly because of your family's influence."

He surveyed the ash-blond man as he let go and turned away, apparently through talking about it, and asked loudly at his retreating figure, "Then where is Seimei?" As expected, he didn't get an answer. Ritsuka said, fiddling with the wooden buttons on his jacket and blushing. "But...what am I to you? Am I... _gay_?" He squeezed out the very last word through his lips as if it were a painfully embarrassing idea.

"I have seen traits in you." Soubi said from a coffee table, choosing to abandon the use of chairs, and nursed a cup of tea between his hands from the floor.

"Are _you—_ gay?"

"The correct term is homosexual, and would it frighten you if I said yes?"

Ritsuka's mind was screaming at him to say bluntly ' _yes, yes it would'_ but he admitted aloud, inching closer to the sitting man and tucking his own legs beneath him, "No. I don't think it would." Soubi smiled inwardly at his youthful honesty.

"Then, yes. I am. You and I have been dating for some time now."

_Dating…?_

Rather than happening to be revolted at the thought, Ritsuka leaned over, innocent eyes widening in astonishment. "I've had my first kiss?"

When the man nodded silently, not caring to go further into detail, purple eyes dimmed out sadly with unexpressed longing.

"It's happened already and I don't even remember it. I bet it was nice. I mean— my brother has kissed me, but not like that."

The earless boy suddenly seemed shy in his actions, scooting up closer to Soubi.

"I-I always wanted to know what it felt like. The kind of kissing the couples do. Like…like…"

His ten-year-old mind state was too driven by curiosity to realize that he was invading someone else's personal space, that he was insinuating something he couldn't have worked out with his inexperience. Ritsuka stretched forward, face nearly inches from the other male, mouth going oddly dry at the close-up look of flashing lenses concealing lavender eyes, "Like when the girl sticks out her face." Imitating the female role, he proceeded to pucker his lips exaggeratedly and shut his eyelids, "and the boy moves in..."

Just as he was through giving his example and pulling away, large, firm hands curled around his head, digging softly into his scalp to still him in mid-sit.

Ritsuka half opened his eyes in time to catch Soubi tenderly close in the remaining space between their lips, dark eyebrows twitching in mild surprise as an incredibly warm sensation took a hold of the sensitive nerves in his mouth.

To keep him rooted, sinking back onto his knees, the re-emerging burning in the center cavity of his chest whispered to him reassuringly to kiss back.

Quelling any doubts about the matter, Ritsuka locked his arms around his companion, responding with the slow, measured kiss. As he gradually became aware of his position staring up at Soubi from his back secure to the wood tiling, of deliciously long fingers skimming up his sides, of ash-blonde hair burrowing into the side of his neck. He heard the sound of clinking, fragile objects. The porcelain lip of Soubi's cup spilling its liquid contents onto the floor. It must have been knocked aside.

Ritsuka's breath locked up in his throat as his companion located one of the many hypersensitive places behind his ear and he clawed into the material of Soubi's woolen beige sweater, clenching his jaw to keep from crying out.

" _ **WHY**_!"

A tall figure from the front door, maybe a few inches shorter than Soubi, gawked and gestured wildly at them.

"Why does this always— ** _always_** happen to me? Why can't you two lock the doors when you're getting physically intimate!?"

The green-haired individual let out a dramatic groan, tossed the bag he had in his left hand onto the cot nearby, slammed the door behind him and sank onto his bottom to glare childishly at Soubi who was helping a disarrayed Ritsuka back onto his feet.

"It's time I took you home," Soubi told him.

As the ash-blond man led him insistently to the apartment entrance, the man on the floor muttered to Ritsuka as he passed by, jerking a thumb in Soubi's direction, "Why do you put up with that pedophile, Aoyagi-kun?"

 

 

*

 

Frankly, he didn't know what had came over him.

For a couple moments in time, Soubi thought he had seen the old Ritsuka reaching to him, compelling him to unthinkingly welcome a consoling hope that he would return and ended up _molesting_ the poor memoryless kid. Hopefully he wasn't too angry with him… though not knowing much about Ritsuka at age ten, he couldn't accurately guess about his personality.

After walking a block or two away from the compartment, he slipped his hand off of the younger's soulder, the sting of intimacy a little too fresh in his mind to allow himself to completely look at him. Ritsuka, fortunately for the both of them, proved himself to be very levelheaded under certain types of stress.

"Who was that guy?"

Feeling only interest and not any form of anger in his tone, the college student glanced sideways at him momentarily. "Kio. An old roommate of mine. We went to school together."

Ritsuka absently rubbed at the red, raw skin on his neck, wincing at the tingle. "Do I go to school?" he asked.

"You go to high school with Yuiko and Yayoi…"

Ritsuka blinked up at him bemused, tucking a strand of black hair behind his ear.

"Who are they?"

Soubi began to realize how serious this situation was becoming. Did he really not remember _anything_ that had occurred in the past six years? Instinctively, he looped an arm around Rituka's shoulders, somewhat thankful to find that the boy was relaxed enough to press back into the Soubi's hold.

"They are your friends." Soubi explained, emptying his afterthoughts. "You and Yuiko were seeing each other for a while." At another confused look, he smiled easily, looking ahead at the sidewalk, "Do you remember meeting a girl with pink hair?"

"Yes." The answer had been instantaneous.

"That would be her. You and I had a fight for a little while and you tried your best to provoke me. It worked naturally because I got very jealous." Soubi's smile never relented. In fact, he seemed happy to recall the tale. Ritsuka decided then and there that his… 'boyfriend' was weird, but didn't pull away from the heat.

"But I did nothing. The fight ended and we became close soon after…" The man paused noticeably. He couldn't go into detail about Spell battles. This Ritsuka had no idea that they existed. It would just bring about more hard questions to answer. Soubi's lips twitched once before he continued as if he had never stopped, cheery smile back in place, "Let's just say, we got ourselves into some trouble and we got out alive, is all. The only prize won was the scar on your neck."

Out of the corner of his vigilant eye, he saw the boy's hands float over the sides of his neck, searching for the so-called disfiguration.

They rounded another avenue to come up the road to Ritsuka's apartment.

"We came to realize that arguments weren't worth breaking our connection with each other. You've changed a lot, Ritsuka. You finally came to terms with your Mother, you planned on moving to my apartment when you turned seventeen." Soubi peered out through his glasses, gravely. "Two months from now."

"Your Mother didn't take that news well and I brought you back that night to wrap up your wounds and get you to sleep. A part of you inescapably hates her, but at the same time loves her. It is still a constant internal battle with you. But what you do know is that if you ever need me, all you have to do is call."

The Aoyagi house stood out in front of them like a dark, menacing bruise. As they approached the yard, Soubi could hear the sounds of livid screaming pulsing from inside and mildly watched as Ritsuka's father hurried from his car to the front door.

Gripping his Ritsuka's shoulder tightly, he spoke calmly to his terrified ward, "Let's use your balcony."

They scaled up to the darkened window-doors, unlatching the handle and slipping inside. After turning on the lamplight, the earless teenager sagged onto his mattress, burying his face into his knees as the pitch of his Mother's furious shrieks rose in intensity.

"I wish Seimei was here," Ritsuka muttered fearfully into Soubi's sweater as they embraced.

It was more of a paternal affection then anything. That suited Soubi fine for the moment as he played with Ritsuka's hair soothingly, lowering his face to kiss the crown of his head and whisper into his ear, "Just keep your door locked. Everything will be alright."

The boy asked, stiffening when something downstairs shattered deafeningly, as if thrown at its desired mark, "You aren't going to leave me, are you?"

"You don't have to worry about that."

Soubi thought of the bloodstains on Ritsuka's jerseys, every dulled maroon glare on his white shirts, on wrinkled shirt sleeves, on collar folds, on breast pockets.

Never again, Misaki.

 

 

*


	5. Chapter 5

*

 

He shifts to the right of his mattress, the last of his dreamless sleep clinging timidly to his consciousness. A warm, cinnamon-scented breeze from somewhere in the room eases him to open his eyes. Through a sleepy haze, he discovers the person blowing air in his face to be a figure from his most cherished scraps of his memories, smiling down on him.

" _You'll be late for school Ritsuka. Get dressed."_

Cool and smooth lips smack audibly against his forehead. Ritsuka graciously receives a face full of his older brother's freshly shampooed hair, stopping a moment from sitting up to take in the comforting smell.

Seimei smells of cashmere and lavender.

It feels relaxing.

His sibling lifts him upright, tossing away the covers wrapped around his frame and yanking his nightshirt up over his head before rummaging for a clean sweatshirt in the pile of laundry on the floor. It feels cold in Seimei's room. He rubs his arms slowly, allowing his teeth to chatter to relieve muscle tension, a second later, forced instead through a gaping hole of red wool and struggling for breath at the end.

Seimei gets on the cot to curl up with him, enveloping long protective arms around his little brother's body and sets his chin musingly on top of his head, careful not to brush his cat ears.

" _I worry for you sometimes, Ritsuka."_

His older brother's fingers bite into the flesh of his upper arm, sending mild twinges of stinging down the veins of his elbow.

" _You love me, don't you?"_

The strength ebbs from him. He bows his head forward, away from Seimei's chest, and makes a tiny sigh of agreement. It is not enough to convince the other. He tightens the embrace and presses moistened lips hotly to the hollow of Ritsuka's human ear.

" _Or is Soubi preoccupying all your time now?"_

A loud, alarmed gasp escapes Ritsuka's throat as the arms around his chest slip around his neck and squeeze callously, cutting off oxygen to his lungs. Feeling his face lose color and soundlessly crying, the younger becomes rigid as his dead brother forcefully tilts his head to the side with one hand, tracing the purpling skin there — as if preparing.

" _The Seven Moons killed me."_

As Seimei breaks his spinal chord in his nightmare, a frightened scream echoed throughout the unlit Aoyagi household.

On watch over his ward, as soon as he heard the scream, Soubi threw his cigarette out the window. He rushed across the bedroom to gather up the thrashing and sobbing child, holding persistently as his half-awake Sacrifice fought fiercely against him.

"Wake."

Dark, teary eyes snapped open. Ritsuka began gulping large amounts of fresh air before latching onto the man wildly, silent tears wetting the fur material of his secure, tobacco-smelling coat.

" _Soubi…Soubi, help me—_ "

His Fighter shushed him, petting his hair and commanding softly, "Sleep without dreams, Ritsuka. Nothing will harm you." Soubi caught his head in the curve of his arm as Ritsuka's system instantly obeyed, setting him back gently into a lying position. He allowed himself a moment to smooth the bangs from Ritsuka's eyelids but he had to restrain himself from anything else. He knew if he kissed the boy, it would complicate matters.

He checked the time on his cell phone.

Two more hours until Ritsuka's school started. They would want to know if he couldn't attend.

Double checking if the bedroom door was locked, Soubi adjusted the fox-fur line of his collar jacket before exiting through the glass doors. Ritsuka's parents would only think of to use the entrance to the bedroom. And he would only be gone shortly. He would feel it if Ritsuka felt threatened in any way.

It would only be for a little while...

For good measure, he turned on Ritsuka's cell phone and placed on the bureau nearest his head.

 

*

 

His nostrils twitched. A cinder and dark smell invaded his awareness, causing the glands beneath his closed eyelids to swell and water.

It smelled just like...

Ritsuka's mind screamed frantically as he shoved his blankets away, his body shaking violently as he coughed on the poisonous, smoke-filled air. Beneath the crack of his bedroom door, black and red figments danced brilliantly, leaking forth and licking the corners of his haven.

Someone had set fire to his bedroom door.

Covering his face with one sleeve of his jersey, the boy scrambled out of bed for the only means of escape.

Climbing over the balcony for safety, Ritsuka dropped on his hands and knees painfully below onto the lawn. His weight toppled him over, leaving Ritsuka to roll over to his side, wheezing noisily for fresh oxygen. Just as he was able to breathe once more, his lungs were cut off of precious vitality by a vice-like grip around his esophagus. Shrieking animalistically into his face, dimly feeling the hot spray of her spit, his mother throttled him.

"WHY WON'T YOU JUST DIE! DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND THAT I WANT YOU DEAD! IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU IMPOSTER! YOU TOOK MY RITSUKA FROM ME! **GIVE HIM BACK**!"

He could only give a weak cry to answer her maniac screeches, his hands curled faintly around her wrists.

\---they dropped to his sides lifelessly.

"Misaki! NO!"

Her desperate husband raced out from the side door, fighting to tear her clawing, obsessive grip from the fragile throat of his son. Petrified by the way wine-colored eyes darkened over with nothingness _— without fear._

 _"HE HAS TO DIE! IT'S NOT RITSUKA!"_ Misaki repeated, emphasizing every word with furious jerks of their son's limp body.

"What makes you say that?"

Indigo, ice-shard eyes smiled contemptuously.

 

*

 

An angry buzzing— pulsing, thudding behind his eardrums. Almost like physical static slashing into his muscles and liquifying into his blood.

 ** _Ritsuka_**.

He could hear the sirens from miles away. And knew exactly where they were heading.

Sweating profusely under the fur coat, Soubi sprinted up the avenue to Ritsuka's home, dreading what he would find waiting for him. He _shouldn't_ have left. He _shouldn't_ have left Ritsuka defenseless. He _should_ have known better.

A couple feet away from the scene, he stopped short.

Both of Ritsuka's parents stared on horrified and awestruck at the taller, male individual crouching down to scoop up the sprawled out child on the front lawn. A clearly living Seimei Aoyagi tutted audibly, clicking his tongue against his teeth as he gazed down critically at his brother. "You are lucky that you haven't done more to him. The punishment would have been severe."

"I tried to stop her..."

Seimei said mildly, knowingly, "You are a foolish coward. Your opinion matters not." As Mr. Aoyagi blushed ugly at the straightforwardness of it, he smirked. "Isn't that right, Soubi? Shouldn't they be punished for trying to kill their own flesh-and-blood?"

Lavender eyes remained fixated on the bruising color around Ritsuka's skin. Blind to any disbelief upon seeing Seimei.

"Rits— "

Seimei blinked once, asserting his authority over his Fighter by simply ordering, no longer smiling, "That will do, Soubi. Ritsuka is in good care. You will not interfere with us. You will go back to your apartment and let me handle things from now on."

A greater part of Soubi, nurtured by Ritsuka's kindness and love, no longer believed he could be controlled by anyone other then just Ritsuka. That he was complete without Seimei's orders. Resilience proved worthless and feeble as his entire body stiffened at the command. All of his instincts told him to turn around and head home...

No...

_Fight..._

"You will obey me, Soubi... because you want to..."

 

*


	6. Chapter 6

 

*

 

" _I'm so glad you aren't like Seimei. From now on I can start to like you."_

_A man — green hair — glasses — Kio smiles at him amiably. His dry, cool touch smells of cocoa butter._

" _I'm being called. Why am I crying?"_

**_"This is due to my spell. I declare this battle."_ **

_I've been forgotten. Who is Ritsuka? Who is Soubi?_

_Who am I?_

 

* **  
**  


****

Seimei always had a plan.

He had known that best about him over the many years he had been with him, working as an unequal partner with him. Seimei Aoyagi had liked things designed out exactly to the very last, littlest factor in his obsessive-compulsive way.

Even in situations that didn't seem possible to control.

The cigarette resting comfortably between his middle and index finger shuddered as the owner of the apartment room flipped off the overhead lights, stumbling to reach a place where he could sit down and collapse. The ash-blond man undid the thick, dark curtains to let starlight guide him to a nearby floor-cushion in his small, cramped bedroom. He welcomed the feel of the ground stably beneath him.

He wasn't prepared for this.

 

* * *

****

* ** _  
_**  


****

_Soubi ends up backing him onto the countertop. The irritated cat-boy protests as his boyfriend presses their foreheads together closely, humming disapprovingly when Ritsuka's beautiful face is marred with an imperfect frown._

_"You wanted this, didn't you?"_

_One of his hands plucks at the cotton fabric of the dress, right on the space above the boy's heart._

_"This is the price."_

_Purple eyes glower heatedly, whether in frustration or genuine anger, is uncertain. Small lips pout unconsciously. "You just get some sick kick out of this...I know you do..."_

_Soubi just chuckles, confirming nor denying this fact, and moves a little closer to his Sacrifice's chest. As the tip of one of Ritsuka's cat ears is bitten gently, the younger winces, becoming very warm in the face. He struggles somewhat in Soubi's embrace, growing hotter as the torture continues slowly on a very sensitive part of his head._

_"—please...not there..."_

_As the man starts to kiss and tongue the evidently endogenous zone, Ritsuka's eyes shoot wide open in pleasure._

_This touch— this sensation — **taboo** except to lovers— amazing—._

_By now, he is unable to control himself from the overload of pure sexual feeling, falling spineless and boneless. Luckily, Soubi's arms lock around him, lowering Ritsuka onto his back to the kitchen countertop, tightening as the teenager's legs enclose around his waist snugly._

_He feels his body shifting against the other man, happily deadened to the millions of little tingles of pleasure coursing down his arms and legs. Ritsuka stares up at the colorful network of threads stitching Soubi's undone coat, lingering over the open collar of his shirt where the pale skin of Soubi's collarbone is exposed. He wonders vaguely if his skin tastes like what it appears to be— creamy vanilla. Smooth. Beautiful._

_This urgent feeling to know is interrupted by soft, firm hands trailing down his legs. Searching and warm, they stop their descent to slide back up, skimming Ritsuka's bare thighs. These hands don't show signs of relenting as familiar, long fingers ride up the edge of Ritsuka's dress, gently parting the inner flesh between his legs. It is a hurried motion that sends the boy into distressful groans and his back arching upwards._

" _Would you like to stop?"_

_Even in the confusion of his senses mixed up and muddled together, the cat-boy finds the breath after a moment to exclaim rather loudly beneath Soubi, "Yes."_

_Then becomes aware of his throbbing groin straining against the other man's, he whispers dreamily, "No."_

_The older waits patiently as Ritsuka tries to get his head on straight, snapping out of his lustful trance and swallowing hard deep in his throat. "Yes. Yes. Please stop."_

" _As you wish."_

_With a small wicked smile, Soubi straightens the plain hem of the blue dress, tracing the skin of the boy's calf for a split second before removing himself. "I'll go shower."_

_As he turns his back, Ritsuka presses his palms to his eyelids fiercely._

_I won't cry._

* * *

****

* ** _  
_**  


****

He must have been desperate.

_"Soubi-kun. What a pleasant surprise…"_

 

 

*


	7. Chapter 7

*

 

The slender point of the needle syringe flashed _alert_ in the lamplight.

Hands traced over the line of his bare hip, unbelievable warm in sensation. The pungent smell of cashmere it wrapped suffocating the last bits of his responses.

And the pitch-black shadows of drugs cradled him down.

 

*

 

"It's been a while, Sensei."

A soft, calm laugh, the quality of the sound teased his ear with familiar feelings of blind devotion and triviality. _"So it has. When do I get to see you again, Soubi-kun?"_

The ash-blond man blew a bit of smoke from the corner of his lip. "Seimei Aoyagi is alive. He has Loveless. How is this?"

" _Am I supposed to know everything that happens in this world?"_

Silence.

" _Very well. You are aware of the fact that Seimei is not your real Sacrifice, yes?"_

Soubi stopped mid-inhale of his cigarette. The powder-blue cell phone in his other hand almost slipped from his sweating grasp.

" _Based on your lack of a response, I'm supposing you didn't. The only reason Seimei could control you as well as he could was not because he was born to be your Sacrifice but because of your willingness to please him and his name that remains carved into your skin."_

"You tricked me."

" _As long as you believed it to be true; things worked out according to plan. Your real Sacrifice is still alive."_

The graduated pupil screened his eyes from the starlight flooding in from the window he sat in front of, as if ashamed to be seen. "…it's Ritsuka, isn't it?"

 

*

 

" _Soubi."_

_The high school student closes his eyes lazily as a smaller hand caresses his long, blonde hair. "Yes, Master?"_

" _The Seven Moons are angry with us. They don't like how powerful we've become as a unit. They plan on targeting me, and I plan on letting them kill me." The person attached to the hand frowns pensively, causing his Fighter to reopen his purple-blue eyes at the feel of the hand tightening, painfully yanking at his scalp. The ache is soothing._

" _Why?"_

" _They are after Loveless. They have already killed his Fighter and his destiny reads as to be murdered by these people. Mostly out of a whim to test him. I won't allow that."_

_The hand releases his Fighter, as if a drowning victim; the blonde begins gasping for large breaths as the younger continues unperturbed._

" _Soubi, I order you to become Loveless's Fighter as soon as you hear I am dead. You will protect and love him, and never tell him who killed me or anything about the Seven Moons."_

 

*

 

" _He will never submit to violence. He is pure." Dark eyes searched periwinkle._

 

*

 

" _I understand."_

 

*

 

" _Soubi-kun?"_

Now shaking wildly, he pressed away the victimizing and yet at the same time _enduring_ remnants that craved to plague his swirling, mismatched thoughts.

After smashing the butt of his seventh cigarette in the last half an hour, he managed to touch the _**END CALL**_ red button before letting Ritsuka's cell drop heavily onto the wood-panel floor.

 

* * *

 

Where was that smoke coming from?

In a typical fashion, eyelids twitched irritably. The sleepy occupant of the single cot room wrinkled his nose; but not with displeasure. It smelled vaguely of vanilla.

Doing away with the wondrous reminiscences of an accustomed periwinkle-color, Ritsuka slowly opened his heavy, blurry eyes. He became aware of several matters in those first few moments of becoming conscious.

The smoky and vanilla smell issued from the thick candle on the bureau nearest his pillow.

. . .

He wasn't wearing pants.

A porcelain coffee cup sat next to the candle.

His throat throbbed along in time with his pulse.

Seimei was arranging the blankets at the foot of the cot.

. . .

A surge of joy sky-rocketed through his nerves upon seeing his older brother safe and unharmed, as if reading his thoughts, narrow dark eyes cut sharply through equally dark bangs. "Don't bother speaking, Ritsuka. Your voice won't be able to return to you until you have a little more time to heal."

To test that theory, the younger parted his mouth and immediately winced, his voice box sputtering pathetically. _It hurt!_

Seimei sighed knowingly, sitting down on the mattress to lean over and rumple his hair. "You never listen to me." Ritsuka slapped the taunting hand away, still lying down, and gave a pout that did not seem to fit his sixteen-year-old exterior.

"If you are wondering where we are; we're in an apartment room for the evening. Do you remember what happened?"

Quite truthfully, the earless boy shook his head hesitantly. The cat-man smirked back.

"There's nothing to worry about. Mother made herself ill again and Father thought it best that we spend a bit of time away from the house. It's…sort of like a honeymoon for us."

Ritsuka giggled childishly; at least in his head he did ( _Seimei was so silly!),_ and smiled shyly when his brother passed him the tea in the coffee cup. As he drank without question and Seimei twisted a strand of his hair out of his face, indigo eyes peered back boldly, almost pleadingly. "Do you love me, Ritsuka?"

A nod: _Of course._

"You know I would never do anything to you that you didn't want, right?"

After confirmation (another this time, a weaker nod…why was the room spinning…?) the elder relaxed in his posture thus inviting the other boy to smile faintly. Ritsuka's body, still prone to the bed, acted just the opposite. Seimei hoisted himself above his sibling, seating himself cozily between the teenager's bare legs. 

"What's the matter? I thought you trusted me. Did you not tell me that you loved me?"

The younger flinched, his skin crawling horribly where his brother's possessive hands skimmed. When they planted themselves securely on the sides of his hips, he bucked, fighting.

"It's a shame, Ritsuka. It's a shame that this beautiful flesh had to be taken by some lowlife who didn't deserve you. Tell me, was it, Soubi?"

Seimei held tightly as his sibling fought harder for control, to throw him off, his expression twisting up into one of downright venom for the very mention of his ex-partner. It calmed into cool superiority as his fingertips lightly sketched the wide lip of Ritsuka's underwear, the muscles beneath it convulsing in fear.

"Ah, but wait…you wouldn't remember that now would you? I guess that proves the drugs were as strong as I liked."

As his large, calculating fingers delved into the fabric, to claim what was his, as his little brother cried out noiseless, cheeks staining blood red with mortification and humiliation; Seimei merely clucked his tongue. "This is what people on honeymoons do."

Then suddenly, he stopped.

Dark, flushing eyes looked up. The buzzer outside chimed frantically in the next room.

"It appears we have an intrusion." Within seconds, Seimei rose from the mattress and disappeared from the apartment room.

Spread out indecently, tears now running freely, Ritsuka found his entire body unable to move. Though his legs trembled and his stomach tossed in a vicious circle from many unnamed emotions, his limbs had lost all motivation to remove himself from his dangerous position.

 _The tea_.

Glistening purple eyes tore away from the half-drained porcelain cup to shoot up to the double windows to his right, whereblocking the setting sunhis rescuer climbed in.

Whether it was relief that broke the spell, Ritsuka gathered the strength to lift his body and practically tackle the bespectacled man with outstretched arms.

"We have to leave now, there will time for this later," Soubi whispered urgently into one of his ears, scooping up a pair of jean shorts for Ritsuka to slip into and fitting him into his extra jacket to protect his naked torso. Just as the smaller finished buttoning on the wool coat, both figures paused when Seimei reappeared in the doorway, folding his arms self-assuredly, "Just where do you think you are taking my little brother?"

As his Sacrifice froze terrified on the spot, aware of the physical sensation against his chest where he had Ritsuka squashed into him. Soubi said, sneering, "This is how you take care of him? Taking advantage and _violating_ someone who loves you unconditionally?"

"I'm good at what I do."

Purple-blue darkened over with an unexpressed importance, even Ritsuka had no choice but to suffer the aftereffects of an icy-and-hot wash of hatred for Seimei in his temporarily hypersensitive gut.

"Soubi, you will go back out the way you came and let Ritsuka come to me."

The younger squeezed his eyes shut, burrowing his face deeper into Soubi's sweater when one of his lover's arms tightened around him.

Indigo-dark eyes flashed briefly with rare anger that he could not repress. "I _**order**_ you."

Fighting off the strongest and most bizarre impulse to abandon Ritsuka, Soubi _did_ succumb to the other urge of jumping out of the third-story apartment. Taking a running start, he snatched the quivering teenager up by the legs before leaping over the railing.

 

*


	8. Chapter 8

*

 

_As gracefully and as quickly as he could, Soubi leapt from the story-high window. As red hot glass and flaming parts of metal and wood exploded behind him, he was surprised later to find the back of his shirt and ends of his long, blond hair un-singed._

_But those matters weren't as important as the struggling child in his arms, thankfully physically unharmed by the fiery chaos._

_For days to come, the reminder of gasoline and charring flesh would cling to his nostrils._

 

*

 

He saw the black, withering figure roped to the elementary school chair so many years ago.

But had it really been Seimei?

Ritsuka had been certain.

But maybe…he just believed it had been his brother. Maybe it just _**looked**_ like Seimei. Traumatic events weren't usually questioned for clarity.

"Nnn _nhh—_ "

Lotioned hands skated down from his neck to the protruding of Ritsuka's collarbone, settling.

"If you would stop moving, it probably wouldn't hurt as much."

Soubi pushed away the tube of healing medication in attempts to subdue the fidgeting child on his mattress, working his mouth between dark bangs and blandly touching his lips against the lift of Ritsuka's eyebrow. He said, before smiling gently once more, "Try not to move your neck. Let me finish."

Blushing slightly under such doting attention, the younger obeyed by pushing his palms flatly down on Soubi's bed. Barely moments later, Ritsuka was gritting his teeth against the pain, stretching his neck away from the appeasing fingertips. His own fingers, smaller and thinner in comparison, clenched the blankets fiercely beneath him.

Quietly, Soubi watched the knuckles grow whiter with effort.

"If lying down is going to be a problem, you'll need to sit up then."

Supporting the back of a bed-head mess with his hand firmly, the man helped Ritsuka sit up and went back to the task at hand. He was careful not to press too deeply into the mottled red and darkeing bruises around his Sacrifice's neck, the throat area especially. Ritsuka was lucky that his windpipe had not been crushed, though Soubi highly doubted that there wasn't at least a tiny bit of damage— complications arose earlier that morning in the business of swallowing food. Talking also wasn't on the list of possibilities.

"Done."

Sluggishly, Ritsuka wiped the telltale moisture gathering in the corners of his eyes and looked up at him, making a modest effort to appear appreciative without speaking it.

Internally thankful for the gesture, half of Soubi fought back the inclination of embracing this boy and never again letting him out of his sight. Seimei kept his distance for now but that wouldn't last forever. Ritsuka was _his_ property, even when Ritsuka was too little to be aware of it.

But if, only _**if**_ Ritsuka was _his—_ _Soubi's_ Sacrifice— didn't that mean more?

All of a sudden, the elder's musings were interrupted by a soft weight falling over his shoulder. His guest squeezed his shoulder twice.

"Did you need something?"

The earless boy grabbed the notepad and pencil beside him and scribbled furiously: _I want to try to eat again. I'm hungry_.

"Very well," the older sat, patiently eyeing him as Ritsuka stared back intently. Clumsily, his Master kissed the side of his face and retreated into the dining area two seconds after, reddening.

Pretending like nothing had happened; Soubi stood up and arranged a meal of soft bread and hot tea for his guest. Just as he finished setting out the food and boiling the water for the tea, two identical and commanding knocks came from behind the apartment door.

On instinct, the boy curled his legs to his chest and hid his face into his pant legs, shielding himself.

"Geez, haven't you ever heard of answering a door before, idiot?" A cat boy with blue-green hair said irritably as he stopped the front door from slamming into the wall, taking a moment to glower at the man who merely smiled back mannerly.

"Don't call him an idiot, Yoji." Another cat boy, looking less fierce in appearance with an even-tempered grin and curly reddish hair, chided the other boy. "This is his home."

The one named Yoji sneered slightly in his companion's direction, blood-red eyes narrowing into slits. "I know that, Natsuo."

"We've just come to grab some things we forgot last time." The politer stranger crossed the room, bending down to snatch up some cardboard boxes across from Ritsuka who had decided it was safe to uncurl from his ball. The redhead paused a moment to wave at him cheerfully. "Nice to see you again, Loveless-kun."

Wine purple eyes dilated.

Soubi cleared his throat noisily. "Is this all you needed?" he asked.

"What? We can't say hi once in a while?" Yoji accused, becoming silent when the boxes were thrust forcefully into his hands by the other boy Natsuo who beamed and said, "We really just wanted an excuse to see you both. It feels like it's been a long time."

The bespectacled adult stepped around the table to lower his voice, hoping that for he moment Ritsuka would stay preoccupied with his food. "Have you heard anything from Nagisa about Seimei?"

The greenish-haired boy made a face. "Why would she talk about that dead freak?" Unlike his friend, Natsuo became worried at the serious glint behind crooked lenses.

"Is there...something going on we don't know about?"

Soubi was about to go into further details when Yoji suddenly paled, his lips thinning into a hard line. Feeling a cold mental slap as a reaction to change in attitude, his Fighter cupped his face with both hands and pulled him close. "Yoji? _Yoji_! What is it? What's wrong?!"

From behind them, Ritsuka vomited onto the floorboards, his arms shaking in the task of holding his own weight up. His eyes rolling.

He never felt arms wrap around his waist.

 

*

 

_What was taking that bastard so long?_

_Bending his knees slightly out and rocking forward, the young man pushed the chains of the swing he stood on forward. With one hand secured, he removed the cigarette from between his lips, exhaling partially in annoyance._

_Being so short at age sixteen, the teenager could have been easily mistaken for younger._

_As a long twist of smoke floated around his_ _tightened features, a weary-looking parent with a toddler passed him, staring angrily at about the violations of smoking in a child-zone._

" _Ritsuka-kun?"_

 _Quickly disposing of the incriminating cigarette in the sand, the first smiled widely at the pink-haired girl gazing up at him through her fake eyelashes disappointingly. "Yuiko, what are_ you _doing hanging out here so late?"_

" _I would ask you the same question if I didn't already know you usually met Soubi here after school. Were you just smoking?"_

_His smile twitched. "No."_

_Bright blue softened, ignoring his obvious lie, she said, "Are you still coming to the party this weekend?"_

" _I said I would." Ritsuka ran a hand anxiously through his dark hair, looking around nervously, "Listen, um, I'll call to you later, alright?"_

_Nodding silently and keeping her eyes firmly to the ground, Yuiko turned at the heel and walked away. Starting to feel a little sorry for being blunt, Ritsuka was about to jump off the swing when something extremely warm somewhat collided into him and he fell face-first into ashy blondehair._

"Soubi _! What the hell?"_

_His boyfriend gripped his thighs, hauling him off his feet as if he were a mother holding a small child. To keep himself balanced, the teen hooked his legs around his capturer and looked down into mischievous blue-purple eyes. "Is there a reason why you feel the need to carry me like this?"_

" _Not particularly, no." The older man pinched Ritsuka's jaw tenderly between his thumb and index finger, inviting the other male to close the distance with teeth and lips. Whispering into his open, panting mouth, Soubi asked, "How was scho_ —?"

 _Confused on why he had stopped, Ritsuka reopened his eyes in time to squeal alarmed at the invading sensation of fingertips poking into his jeans. "Hey! What? Sexual…harassment_ …" _he trailed off lamely, wine-colored eyes enlarging as Soubi apprehended the box of cigarettes._

" _Now I know where my extras are being put to use."_

_Not wanting to seem guilty, he said casually, "For all you know, Kio could have planted them there."_

_Soubi's eyes clearly read:_ In your back pocket? Not a chance.

… _He was screwed._

" _Okay, I took them." Ritsuka admitted as the adult set him to his feet, "I ran out and I figured you wouldn't miss them…much."_

_Rather than being angry or upset, Soubi took to blinking. "Why smoking?" he asked.  
_

_Ritsuka narrowed his eyes and said heavily through a clenched jaw, "I'm walking home alone."_

_The older man snatched his hand apologetically._

_"I didn't mean to upset you, Ritsuka."_

_He glared openly at his Fighter who tugged him back to his chest, wrapping Ritsuka's free hand around his waist. "You're mad about something else. Something I said."_

_"Why do you have to be so damn perceptive?" Ritsuka dug his fingers into the soft flesh of Soubi's side in hopes that it would compel him to let go; his companion disregarded the ache and peered down at him thoughtfully._

_"Do you honestly want to know why I enjoy smoking? Or is this something to do with sex?"_

_"You don't_ ever _want to talk about it! **This**!" The stubborn teenager yanked himself away from his boyfriend, pointing back and forth between them. " **Us**! Every time I stray too close to the subject, you find something else to talk about! I don't understand why you are so afraid of talking about us becoming intimate! That's what people in a relationship do, don't they? Isn't that normal!?"_

_"Because that's the only thing on your mind, Ritsuka." Dark eyebrows creased. "I'm waiting for you to think more rationally before you decide to jump into decision you'll regret later," Soubi explained.  
_

_Ritsuka's cat ears flicked once, and his eyes glazed over. "I could have used that warning before I met you," he muttered.  
_

 

*

 

 _He remembered very little after storming off. Days seemed to blend together. There was the party_ — _faces from his class, rosy-cheeked from the drinking, and the many cups of alcohol he had ingested trying to convince himself that he was okay enough to have a good time._

_Then Yuiko._

_And then, the absence of his cat ears and tail._

_There could have been only be one conclusion._

_"Ritsuka-kun, please! Listen to me_ —!"

_The two disheveled, running teenagers slowed outside the duplex apartments painted bright orange from sunrise, the male doubled over for breath and obscured by the hood of his jacket, and the female barely buttoned up in her top and fixing her skirt from the high winds._

_"How did we_ — _**why**_ _did we...?" He pounded on his chest to keep from coughing_ — damn nicotine habit— _and flinched when his best friend impulsively threw her arms around him._

_Instead of blubbering like a child at the times she knew she was in serious trouble, Yuiko said dully, "Does it matter now? We've made a mistake that can hurt us both. I...I don't think we used protection...I can't remember...."_

_"Yayoi...he's my boyfriend, Ritsuka. We promised each other we would wait. And you and Soubi..." She broke off, crying out as Ritsuka pushed her away, taking off in a sprint._

_None of this had to be right. He didn't sleep with Yuiko. He didn't. He didn't try to make Soubi jealous._

_He didn't tell Soubi it was a mistake to be with him._

_He didn't._

_Not getting enough blood pumping through his system, the newly-made adult's legs buckled from under him and he clutched at a lamppost, sinking to his knees. This_ — _all of this, had to be some nightmare, this downward spiral constricted of lies and resentment_ —

_Ritsuka screamed as a high frequency noise current violently crashed into his skull._

_Crossing the pedestrian walkway straight for him, two similarly-built adults sneered._

_"Loveless. We've come for you."_

_Before they obtained a closer approach than two feet from him, a powerful gust of wind sent them skidding on the balls of their heels as the road and sidewalks melted into dark shades of blue energy fields. Standing in front of their target, an unfazed Soubi._

_"I accept your challenge. Fighting system, initiated."_

_The new arrival with Wedgwood-blue hair broadened his smirk, showing off his larger canines. "We're not here to fight with_ **YOU**. _This is a short mission." The other, a male with a ginger-colored braid, crossed his muscled arms. "Don't interfere with us, traitor," he added.  
_

_Ritsuka regained some energy to lift his face up and found Soubi's left hand hovering in front of him. Soubi never responded to his Sacrifice rejecting the connection by turning away, very much aware that it was out of a great amount of shame and humiliation (not cowardice or a personal grudge), and struck back at their enemies grimly when Ritsuka's blood spilled onto the discolored-bluish concrete, turning it a lovely pale hue._

_Fingers cupping at the torn flesh on his neck, the teenager applied pressure to the split. What seemed like seconds in time, Soubi came into view, leaning down and scooping him up bridal-style._

_"What happened?" Ritsuka asked...(why did it sound like he had wads of cotton in his mouth)...?_

_Soubi tilted his head at the barely conscious unit fighting to stay awake as the scenery returned to normal. He walked off with his partner, up the avenue, and was about to set a extremely woozy Ritsuka down when one of the neighbors came out of their yards._

_Recognizing the handsome figure as Soubi, the old graying woman smiled kindly._

_"My, my, I haven't seen you in a longest time. How have you been, my dear ? It seems like it's been ages since you've come over for coffee."_

_When he saw her eyeing the person in his hold, Soubi shifted the teen so that the blood would be hidden from plain view._

_"Who's that you got with you?" she asked.  
_

_"He twisted his ankle." The man flashed an easygoing smile. "I'm taking him back home to get cleaned up."_

_"It is so nice of you to be taking care of the poor dear." The neighbor clucked her tongue disapprovingly, reaching out and squeezing Soubi's sleeve as if he were an important savior. "I've seen the mother. Not right in her mind, it terrifies me to think about her having children in her care." She laughed, switching up her attitude to something more optimistic. "But with you watching over him, I guess I have nothing to fret over. You look like you've grown so much from the boy I saw hanging around the Aoyagi gates."_

_He bowed his head respectably. "Come back for coffee soon, Soubi-kun."_

_As soon as the old woman disappeared behind her front door, Soubi somberly observed the dark maroon halfway dried on his shirt and set his Master to his feet, gently tugging away the hood and rubbing his palms against Ritsuka's warming face. "We're at your house. Don't fall asleep right now."_

_After only hearing a weak yawn, he summoned whatever strength of their bond could be passed into Ritsuka as his mouth fumbled over another. The teenager sucked in a deep, rigid breath, his body yearning to press into Soubi's but his realistic mind state prevented him from moving or accepting the kiss. Soubi didn't appear to experience any of this, nor care about the fact that his ears were clearly nowhere to be found. And as he drew away, his hands dropped to his sides._

_"Cover your neck before going in."_

_Gripping his bright red scarf into the wound, Ritsuka avoided his eyes and fished out his house key._

_As he entered, yanking it from the lock, one of the bigger, more shatter-able objects from the mantle of the fireplace hurled into the wall next to his head. Normally, when his mother had severe fits of rage it didn't even register with him, but combined with the events the week had handed him, he reacted._

_The glass of a picture frame crackled in a spider web-like pattern as it landed on the rug beside where Ritsuka curled into a fetal position against the door._

_"_ WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? **TELL ME!** WHY DO YOU LOOK LIKE THIS? WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN **DOING**?! _"_

_He murmured, pressing his lips to his knees, knowing she probably couldn't hear him over her own shrieks, "Please...mother...I need to get ready for school..."_

_"_ MY RITSUKA DOESN'T LOOK LIKE THIS _!"_

_T_ _he livid housewife got a fistful of his hair,_ _scraping her fingernails into his scalp_ _and with an burst of anger, hauled him face-to-face with her._ _Ritsuka began to marvel hazily through the sting of the bleeding half-crescents embellishing his pale skin and the steady throbbing of his neck injury of how it got to this point._

_"_ MY RITSUKA IS JUST IN GRADE SCHOOL! WHO ARE YOU? **WHO ARE YOU** AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY RITSUKA _!?"_

_" **STOP IT**!"_

_His mother hesitated, saliva drizzling down her chin as her beady, dark eyes watched outraged as her son wretched away from her as if repulsed by her very touch._

_I'm sick of this! I'm sick of being treated like I'm some kind of parasite! Ritsuka didn't go anywhere_ — _I'm him! And I have to move out_ — _I've got a friend I can stay with..."_

_A muscle in her forehead bunched up. The next moment, Ritsuka found himself staring at the floor with a strange crink and one of his cheeks pulsing hot._

_She lowered her hand, seething, tears sparkling in her eyes._

_"You rotten,_ filthy _abomination._ _How dare you speak to me that way. My Ritsuka would never dishonor his family by engaging in such horrible acts."_

_His heart clenched up his throat. It began to connect. The parted window shades where his mother had been originally standing gave a perfect opportunity for her to catch the kiss in the driveway. She saw them._

_His embarrassment of being caught was cut short by another round of inhumane screeching. Ritsuka gawked wide-eyed at Misaki's feverish trembling, her raised hand being gripped harshly by a very stern-looking Soubi._

_"You no longer have the option of striking Ritsuka."_ _He glanced sideways at him, ordering evenly, "Get your things."_

 

*


	9. Chapter 9

*

 

_Ritsuka heard his Mother holler into the chilling night to never return._

_And he was…astonishingly_ __…_ enough okay with that._

_With his couple of duffel bags of clothes and other personal belongings (toothbrush, his childhood photos of him and Seimei, cell phone, money, his more recent photos of him and Soubi, his computer hard drive, and his precious camera) they made it about ten steps before the exhausted teen promptly crumpled from stress and the loss of blood._

"Ouch!"

_Both adults sat on the only mattress in Soubi's small apartment, the younger biting fiercely into the skin of his left palm as his Fighter tightened the remaining strings of bandage gauze. "You should take your medication."_

_As Ritsuka accepted the painkillers, he cradled them between his fingers solemnly. "I really messed up, didn't I?" He almost choked on his gulp of tap water when Soubi smiled mysteriously._

_"Yuiko confided in me about her situation," he said, calmly.  
_

" _She-_ **WHAT**?!"

_The man chuckled softly. "So you didn't plan on telling me?" Soubi asked. "Did you think I would just ignore the disappearance of your ears and tail?" Soubi's fingers caressed a contrasting strand of black hair. "I'm going to assume you had a little too much fun at your party and matters of judgment were clouded."_

" _It was…strange." Soubi looked up placated but interested through his lenses as the younger mumbled, almost to himself with awe, "She smelled good. She smelled…like you. I closed my eyes and I thought it was you."_

" _So it was just a mistake."_

_Wine eyes dulled. "Why don't you hate me?"_

_To hate Ritsuka would have been a taboo against Seimei's direct orders…_

… _and was it necessary?_

_Eyes flashed."Is that a challenge?" Soubi whispered.  
_

_That shut up the other quickly as he said composedly, checking over the bandage on Ritsuka's neck, "Yuiko is going to get herself tested in a few weeks. If by some small chance she is pregnant, she wants to either put the baby up for adoption, or if you_ wanted— _" Soubi emphasized on the final word, staring boldly into wavering purple, "You could help in the decision. She says you should not feel obligated to throw everything away to take care of the child. What she wants is only half of the responsibility."_

_Whether it was the awful reality of it all, his outward show of detachment finally failing to keep his emotions in check, or the simple way Soubi laced those accusing words; Ritsuka surrendered himself to soul-devastating sobs. Somehow concerning his being crushed into his boyfriend's stiff, protective embrace and the unpleasant racket coming from his chest, he managed a couple coherent sentences._

_The better version turned out to be: "I'm sorry. I'm sorry about what I said, that it was a mistake being with you. I was afraid because we weren't intimate and you were more experienced that you would get tired of me_ —

" _You're stupid to believe that."_

 _Ritsuka gasped loudly in surprise and in how tense Soubi's arms became slipping around his back. Now straddling the elder's waist and growing uncomfortably hot in his lower regions, he protested, "Sou_ —"

_The ash-blondeman slid his hands beneath Ritsuka's striped jersey, causing the younger to cut off with a favorable moan. As skinner arms seized around his neck, Soubi mouthed into his collarbone, "I would never abandon you for petty reasons as losing your virginity or doubting me."_

_Flushing darkly, his Master asked sadly, "Would you for Seimei…if he was alive?"_

" _Talking ruins the mood." Soubi scolded gently, taking to discarding the other's shirt and creating invisible wet paths with his lips across his hairless stomach. Purposely avoiding making any contact with Ritsuka's bulging erection, Soubi lowered them to the blankets, his boy panting helplessly beneath him._

" _Soubi…please…I have to…"_

_Agreeing without speaking, Soubi made a motion to lower his mouth with all intents of relieving him, but Ritsuka pulled him back up, eyes sending out a different message._

_Soubi hesitated. "Are you sure about this?" he asked.  
_

_Responding, the teen gave a lingering, cautious kiss beneath Soubi's turtleneck, rolling the troublesome obstacle away from the skin he would have been willing to drink in eagerly. Dry, warm hands stilled him from his exploration. His Fighter rubbed the back of his neck soothingly._

_"Sex between two men are much different then a man and woman. You may not be fully expecting some of the sensations you may feel. If something doesn't feel right or if I am causing you pain, you must be willing to tell me, understand?"_

_After clarification, after he was sure Ritsuka was being honest, both sweaters ended up pooling onto the tile floor. Soubi tossed aside the rest of his clothing, allowing his Master to examine every ripple of scarred flesh with affectionate hands, for him to stare amazed at skin hidden_ — _vanilla-colored muscles shaped and tampered with effort as he unzipped Ritsuka's jeans. With Soubi taking his time to hoist each leg free, the dark-haired teenager was driven to impatience and wiggled himself from the rest of the form-fitting material._

" _Since you are so energetic..." The man ducked a smile at the sight of an aggravated glare, adding, "go to the second drawer and find a clear-colored tube."_

 _The younger whimpered in anticipation as Soubi coated his fingers with the liquid inside the small container he had been handed with some difficulty_ — _when a foreign digit burrowed smoothly into an area unfamiliar to Ritsuka._

_Lavender sparked with concern as the muscles around his index finger stiffened. "Do you want me to continue?"_

"… _Just…getting use to it." The new adult cried out a bit louder as another current of pain shot angrily into his stomach; by the time Soubi had the first finger fully inserted, Ritsuka felt the beginnings of tears slipping from his cheeks._

_Before he could get the feeling back in his arms and wipe them, his lover spared a moment from preparing him to lick them away. We can stop. There's no hurry." Wine-purple eyes shut forcefully as he clung to Soubi, losing control of his body as he cried._

 

*

 

_Soubi._

_I'm sorry._

 

*

 

"7?"

The young, blonde woman glued to the monitor looked to one side through her glowing-blue lenses, asking evenly but never ceasing on her rapid typing, "What is wrong, Nagisa? You sound troubled this evening."

Another woman, with two thick powder-blue ponytails, twisted her hands together anxiously. Her ashen lilac eyes dropped to the ground. "I just have a feeling is all," she murmured. "Ritsu knows something important…and he's not telling me…"

"Why would he?"

7 didn't understand where she was getting at…he didn't ever tell anyone _anything,_ except maybe his favorite student…

"I don't know…I just…don't appreciate him holding information from me." 

7cocked an eyebrow subtly.

"It's not like you work with him," she said, pointing out. "He finds you a pain, surely you know this."

Nagisa chuckled nervously, twisting her fingers to the point of audible popping. "Yes…I just have a bad feeling. I've been feeling it all day."

7 sighed, stopping her activity and pushing her wheeling desk chair away from the computer screen to make total eye contact. The blue-haired woman was relieved to find concern and not irritation in her composed stare. "You _have_ been acting strangely. Perhaps we should call it a night, you can finish up your experiment tomorrow and I can continue my program back in my room."

Feeling the beginnings of a reassured smile plucking up the corners of her mouth, Nagisa agreed, heading for the exit door.

"Am I interrupting anything, ladies?"

Leaning against the doorway smugly, stood a tall man with stringy black hair. From behind the other woman, 7 sank back into her chair fearfully.

"Akame…"

As he bared his teeth menacingly, Nagisa reddened with fury, opening her mouth. It hung open as the man stepped aside respectfully for another shorter figure.

Indigo, ice-shard eyes sneered.

"I think you can spare a couple minutes, Nagisa-san."

 

*

 

_Where am I?_

_Ten-year-old Ritsuka blinked several times as his vision stopped whirling, obscured by bubbles and sharp washes of white and blue. He gasped fearfully, clutching at his throat._

_As the sparkling underwater scene brightened around him, he felt himself land on what felt like beneath his bare feet to be sand. But he was underwater…so how could he be breathing? Shouldn't he be drowning? As Ritsuka tried to work out the details of this anomaly, his black furry cat ears flattened against his skull attentively._

_Wait…_

_He reached out to tug them, finding the ears in his hair to be genuine when tremors of real soreness fired down his spine, then examined at the rest of his body. What the heck? He looked ten— **not** sixteen._

_A sudden jolt of pain behind his temple caused the boy to fall sideways to one knee. Rubbing the ache insistently, ten-year-old Ritsuka heard a low growl coming from his left side, "Will you knock it off? That hurts."_

_His teenage self, appearing sullen, curled his jean-legs to himself and frowned pointedly at him._

_The younger said sympathetically, crawling over to him. "Are you okay?"_

_Sixteen-year-old Ritsuka, earless and hardened, dig the toe of his Converse sneaker into the discolored aquamarine sand, murmuring, "I said bad things. I don't like being trapped here."_

_"I know what you mean." The ten-year-old nodded knowingly. "I was stuck here a real long time."_

_"This is our mind, isn't?"_

_"I think so." The smaller Ritsuka flinched in synch with the older, identical-looking right hands coming up to touch opposite temples. "Why does it hurt so much?"_

_"Something happened. S-something…" The teen stammered, frustration made evident on the creasing of his lips, "I can't remember…why can't I remember a-anything…anymore?!" He cursed silently, looking off in another direction._

_Ten-year-old Ritsuka insisted, yanking on the other boy's shirt sleeve, "There has to be a reason why we're both here."  
_

_"Maybe he needs us both."_

_The sixteen-year-old stared up as his adolescent self stood up determinedly, eyes fresh with a child-like hope that he couldn't quite get a grasp on. The child smiled encouragingly, extending a hand, "I want to see Soubi again," he said.  
_

_The older Ritsuka hung his head slightly as he made his decision and pushed the hand away. The younger grabbed his wrist instead. The invading amiability of another being triggered slight warmth to his features and his wine-colored eyes to bug out as he was hauled out onto his own two feet._

_After gazing down shocked at the resolve of innocent, steady eyes;,the earless smiled slowly, wrapping his trapped hand around the other's wrist and squeezing in return._

_"Me too."_

_They held onto each other as their glittering surroundings roared bright white._

 

*

 

"DON'T YOU EVER— _ **EVER**_ DO THAT TO ME AGAIN— DO YOU HEAR ME?"

Youji stumbled on the last three steps outside the steel-built apartment complex to purposefully dodge another outraged smack to the head. He landed on the sidewalk unharmed only to have part of his slender frame bruised by the collision of his redhead Fighter snatching him into a rough embrace and meeting the wall.

Natsuo's bare thin arms hugged him so tensely that their bodies made a perfect symmetrical line and the first boy sniffled angrily, nestling half of his crumpling face into the heavy fabric of Youji's sunset-copper gakuran coat.

"Don't cry." The longer-haired cat boy ran his fingers pensively through the mop of burgundy curls, attempting the calm his partner through their faint bond. "I didn't mean to scare you. I just don't like seeing other people get sick."

Blood-red eyes peered fondly into ottle-green.

Natsuo put on a more relaxed expression, wiping his eye not covered by the eyepatch with the ridge of his palm. "Do you think Loveless will be alright?" he asked.

"Soubi wouldn't do anything stupid. That I know of." The green-blue haired cat boy frowned suddenly, digging into his beeping pants pocket for his cell phone. With one arm still firm around Natsuo, he flipped up the lid and asked cordially, "What is it, Nagisa? Hello? Hello, _what_? Hello?"

As he watched the connection die, his Fighter unit stiffened, his voice barely a whisper, "Something's gone wrong. We have to go back to Academy. _Now_."

"Do we tell Soubi?" Natsuo said eyeing his Sacrifice's shaking hands that tried too hard as he scrambled to shove his cell phone away. He shook his head _'Later'_ before they vanished from the safety of the street lamps.

 

*

 

_"Soubi…"_

He retrieved the wet washcloth from the basin as soon as he heard Ritsuka mutter in his sleep. As his Sacrifice began to regain consciousness, the man seated himself beside the boy, removed his glasses from the bridge of his nose, and wiped a few trickles of sweat from the teenager's forehead.

With his heated skin to the cool, soft towel, Ritsuka cringed faintly, eyelids shuddering momentarily and separating to reveal fatigued, purple eyes.

"Welcome back, I missed you." Soubi murmured into the column of his lover's throat, teasing him a little pulling back with a friendly smile, "Where did you go that you were so intent on staying?"

 _"You wouldn't believe me…"_ The young man informed him, drowsily.

"How are you feeling?"

_"Whole…"_

Lavender eyes glanced down at him confused before widening. Soubi immediately grabbed his Sacrifice's cheeks between his hands, lifting his face to level his. They withdrew as fast as they initially reacted.

"Ritsuka…?"

 

*


	10. Chapter 10

*

 

The butterflies needed more purple.

Dipping his slender, wooden paintbrush lightly in a puddle of deepest violet available to him, Soubi swept the pointed tip across his primed canvas, caught in a personal rhythm of hand motions and a numbed frame of mind. It required no concentration to create butterflies.

Tapping his cigarette butt with the back of his pinky fingernail, charred pieces of brown ash flaked onto the wings of his haunting fabrications.

Heaving a lingering sigh of nicotine into his system, feeling his very blood vessels respond to the precious toxin, Soubi took note of the approaching presence by sitting back on his haunches and placing his paintbrush down.

"I thought you were cutting back."

Clad only in a loose bathrobe, Ritsuka quickly pushed the dripping clumps of his hair away from his eyes, the motion causing one shoulder to free itself from the restriction in velour, beige cloth.

Tearing his eyes from the tempting and _very lonely_ looking shoulder, the blond man replied to the teen's observations with an impish smirk, "Only if you order me to."

"Don't tempt me to follow through with that statement." The younger kneeled down onto the floor with his Fighter, easing himself into the crook of one of Soubi's arms and touching his head lightly to his neck. "I'm not in the mood."

Cringing, Ritsuka groaned aloud, brushing his fingers against his throat. He groaned a bit louder in protest when Soubi's fingers cradled around the fading bruise as he examined it. "You are healing nicely. Does it still hurt to move your neck?"

"A little." He admitted, staring up into his companion's eyes evenly, "But I'm trying not to complain."

Staring back, Soubi once again found himself thanking mentally what ever forces brought the old Ritsuka back to him. After collapsing that morning, worrying both Soubi and the now vanished Zero boys, he had woken up that evening, speaking with every manner that the sixteen-year-old adult had…if not…somehow a little more _balanced_.

"Is there something on your mind, Ritsuka?"

If the teenager still had his virginity, his furry, black cat-tail would have whipped around in a violent circle before bristling with tension. Otherwise, Ritsuka appeared unmoved by the keen observation.

"I want to find Seimei." Soubi's eyebrows twitched, surprised. "I need to talk to him. It seems like I shouldn't, but I feel like I need to see him face-to-face. And I want to talk to Yuiko today."

Wine-color eyes, the same vivid purple drying unfinished on his canvas, searched him for answers that he did not truly need.

"Do you think I'm childish for wanting these things?"

Ritsuka inhaled sharply, blinking startled when his Fighter suddenly clasped his shoulders and lowered himself almost eye-to-eye. Soubi smelled. Smelled like everything comfortable in this universe--of strong mint, dark coffee, and his cigarettes. Ritsuka no longer had a desire to smoke. It didn't fit him, but it fit Soubi like one of his many fur jackets. The smell would never rinse from his memory. He would never wish it to.

"You aren't a child anymore."

 

*

 

His face exploded in white-hot agony.

Yayoi pulled back his balled-up fist, still leveled at him, heaving wildly through his clenched teeth.

_" **STOP IT**! BOTH OF YOU JUST **STOP IT**!"_

Now sobbing uncontrollably into Soubi's sweater-sleeve wrapped around her both to console her hysterics and keep her upright if she weakened (the trembling in her legs wasn't a good sign), Yuiko initially struggled against Soubi's hold around her before giving up and clinging to him.

Ritsuka staggered back from the power of the blow to his left cheek, clutching the side of his face before slowly and guiltily gazing back up to his best friend's boyfriend.

Blue eyes darkened violently behind rectangular lenses. Yayoi growled loudly at him, "You stupid son of a bitch…you should at least let me have the honor of beating the shit out of you…"

The other teen lowered his head respectfully, whispering, "If you wish it."

_" **NO**!"_

His girlfriend's screams of protest was not what made him pause. Soubi's intent stare, _very intently locked_ _on his every movement stare_ caused his anger to pale somewhat. He asked, voice audibly shaking as the tips of his green nd black cat ears were, "How could you take advantage of her? I thought you were her friend!"

Paying deliberate attention to the fact that Yayoi did not refer to Ritsuka as his friend as well, the purple-eyed adult dug a hand into his hair, gripping. "It was... it was an accident. It didn't mean anything to either of us. I wasn't thinking clearly—"

Before he could finish his sentence, his ex-friend snatched him around the collar of his jersey, bringing Ritsuka in as his anger swelled, heightening. "Are you thinking clearly now?"

Ritsuka cried out sharply as the elastic band around his neck cut harshly into his bruises, the noise compelling the older man to materialize into the scene and break Yayoi's seize by pressing painfully into the back of his knuckles, rupturing a vessel. Feeling the pain, the cat-boy leaped away, shaking his right hand and glaring outright at the tall, solemn figure.

"You are going to let Yuiko and Ritsuka talk about their situation. If you are going to stay, you will refrain from threatening my Master." Soubi's eyes spoke subtly but openly: _Or else. You've already had your second strike._

Still somewhat embarrassed by the spoken term of endearment, by Yuiko's slight blushing on her blotchy, wet face, Ritsuka waited for Yayoi to sit down on the school lawn, folding his arms contemptuously. He nodded in his Fighter's direction.

"What did your doctor say?"

The pink-haired girl looked for a moment as if she had forgotten where she was before smiling gently at Ritsuka. "Oh, yes. There was nothing. I'm not pregnant..."

Happily sapped of apprehension at the sound of the news, the teenager hugged her against him, grinning. Yuiko squealed at the feel, grinning halfheartedly back.

From the lawn, Yayoi closed his eyes relieved.

"Aoyagi-kun."

Everyone glanced off to where he stood, pensively looking back at the shocked expressions. He walked over to Ritsuka who still stared uneasily and extended his hand that had once struck him. "I am sorry that I could not control my anger when I found out you both…well—" Yayoi scratched his temple, slipping over his words uncomfortably.

"Had drunken sex?"

Ritsuka fixed a fierce look on the blond man who merely smirked back at the commanding intention of it.

The long-haired boy coughed, managing to catch up with his train of thought. "—will you accept my apology?" Yayoi muttered.

Without hesitating, Ritsuka took the outstretched hand.

 

*

 

"Are you disappointed?"

Rounding around another street corner of town, passing a boarded-up flower shop and a crowded shoe store, the youngest of the pair frowned up at his familiar escort.

"What do you mean, Soubi?"

"As I said, are you disappointed that Yuiko does not carry your child?"

Ritsuka's lips shifted against each other, signaling his thought process. He admitted, kicking his red Converse sneaker against some larger stones on the sidewalk, "Actually, no. I'm not disappointed. It would have been too confusing for him or her anyway."

Soubi purposely waited a minute before asking his next question.

"Does that mean you would have kept it?"

Ritsuka's body came to a standstill on the asphalt. Unable to pick at a single truthful impression from the rush of emotions swirling around him, the man said thoughtfully, looking upwards at the clouds, "You and I should have a baby together."

"Men can't get pregnant, idiot!"

Smirking wider at Ritsuka's predictable retort, the blond man kept his eyes glued above him but continued teasingly, "We haven't tried it yet…"

 _'It's not physically possible, stop being stupid!_ "

The cell phone in Soubi's coat pocket began to light up green. He retrieved it without moving his eyes and flipped open the top, the other adult stared upwards too, cupping his eyes from the sunlight and wondering what was so damn fascinating about the sky.

As expected. Nothing.

_'Idiot.'_

Ritsuka felt himself being tugged forward jerkily as Soubi broke out into a fast jog. "What the—? **_Soubi_** _!_ Where are we going?"

Soubi's grasp loosened as they stopped after a couple blocks outside a row of medium-sized apartments next to the art building of Soubi's old college (he remembered going inside once to see an art exhibit Soubi had been a part of; it was a fairly spacious area). Compared to Soubi's apartment, these seemed more expensive.

On the ground floor, Soubi went for the door labeled **A-05** and entered without knocking, leaving his companion a bit miffed at his rudeness but nevertheless followed after.

In the corridor of the taupe-colored hallway, two figures hunkered against the plaster wall, not quite hidden by a burgundy mosaic-glass vase.

Two figures Ritsuka would have expected to never see together.

 

  
*


	11. Chapter 11

 

*

 

"I know you."

One of the hunched figures slumped against the taupe-colored apartment wall peered through her long, blonde bangs at the speaker—the earless boy with uniquely large and perceptive eyes. Eyes that nothing less f a fully-recognized adult should own.

She stretched one of her arms over her black tee shirt modestly to grasp her own shoulder, dropping her eyes.

"You are Ritsuka-kun, yes. You were in the game. Still searching for the answers?"

Her almond-shaped eyes, a severe green _(1)_ hue that did not seem to match her withdrawn personality, this time looked into his eyes—to speak volumes he could not attain.

 

 

*

 

"Nagisa-san is dead."

The coffee in Ritsuka's mouth suddenly became very cold as it slide sour down his esophagus. A thin silence filtered around the room where the rest of the guests were seated.

Kio interjected, flipping open his Zippo, "I found these two wandering around downtown yesterday. When they mentioned Aoyagi Seimei, I knew it had to do with you." Holding the flame over his cigarette end, he gazed sharply between Ritsuka and Soubi, who remained expressionless.

"Thanks for letting us stay by the way." The Zero Sacrifice stared at the green-haired apartment owner as he made his leave, marching out into the kitchen area and leaving a trail of whitish smoke behind him.

"Whatever," Kio muttered.

7 glanced up from staring at the wood-paneling floor blankly to address everyone, "Someone let Beloved and his fighter unit inside the Academy. They have become extremely dangerous to any living thing in their path. I watched that _monster_ —" Who she was speaking about wasn't obvious but her rage was unmistakable through the trembling of her lean body. Through her shining glasses, 7's eyes pierced into the two newcomers, the younger straightening up immediately, "—What do you plan on doing about this?"

"They're also hiding Youji somewhere." Natsuo trembled if not harder than his female companion, it being worry and something _**deeper** _ then shock. "I can feel his pain. His loneliness. He's being tortured somewhere. He _needs_ me, he calls me, and I can't find him."

Ritsuka jumped slightly when Soubi spoke up from beside him, surprised by how calmly and smoothly his baritone voice floated into his ears, "Seimei is ruthless. You should expect—"

"Ritsuka-kun?"

Interrupting the Fighter, Kio appeared, stepping around 7 and extending his free hand to the teenager, "This came for you. Found it taped outside the front door."

Knowing that everyone was watching him, he cautiously lifted the loosened flap of the cream-white envelope, skimming over the shorthand writing he recognized on old, frail papers covered in dust underneath his brother's cot.

"He knows where we are."

 

 

_Ritsuka,_

_In two days, another note will come for you. It is very important that you find that letter and follow its instructions that day._

_You know where to look._

_\- Seimei_

 

 

 

*

 

Between the waiting days, Ritsuka found himself coming back alone to Kio's apartment after school hours to talk to both 7 and Natsuo. Soubi never questioned where he was going or when he was coming back… that, or already _knew_.

"I still haven't figured out what happened."

The young, blonde woman took a sip of her green tea, answering his complicated question with an abnormally patient pretense, "From the story you spoke of earlier about your brother, perhaps the drugs wore off... did you think of that being a possibility?"

"It's not just that… _it's_ —"

Ritsuka rubbed his left eye irritably. "I don't understand how I lost my memories in the first place," he said.

"Does he know your real name?" Natsuo shook his reddish curls when Ritsuka cocked an eyebrow at him, gesturing to 7. "You explain it to him."

She set aside her saucer and cup, stretching her blue-clad arms over her head before folding her hands together in her lap. "Ritsuka-kun, real names hold unspeakable power over an individual. They have the ability to control a person's mind and body. If you know someone's real name, you can change aspects of their character, erase their memories, and essentially make them killing machines."

 

_No…_

"But it requires the controller to be the same or higher level of the person being controlled and for that to be acknowledged beforehand. If this is the case, Beloved has had an advantage over you for some time and most likely erased _your own_ memories."

 

_No…_

"…but…why would he do that?" he mumbled uncertainly to himself.

7 adjusted herself on the plump floor cushion as Natsuo made a tiny noncommittal noise, again braving to answer the most complicated of his questions.

"Ask him if you ever meet face-to-face," he said.

 

 

*

 

_The pain didn't quite let up as soon as he would have like it. And the function of his lungs refuse to even and quiet out. Vanilla-colored hands touch his burning face._

_"Breathe. Once you do, you will feel better."_

_In. Out. In. Out. In. Out._

_The same hands cover his own trembling, clenching the mattress below and slowly ease them to position over his cock. In shock by great tremors of pleasure, he yelps, blushing to the roots of his hair and claps his hands over his mouth to silence himself._

_"It's okay to make noises." Soubi promises him, mouthing against the bridge of his nose, "It helps us both."_

_So he gives into the impulses to reply to the amplified sensations of Soubi moving inside of him, to the tingling of his cock as Soubi's hands press in time with the thrusts._

_In. Out. In. Out. In._

_He begins to understand the significance of the motion. Of Soubi's hipbones colliding into the backs of his thighs. Of sticky warmth gathering inside of him. Leaking from him, over his fingers, over Soubi's fingers._

_Looking downward, the teen realizes that Soubi was finished. But he wasn't._

_Soubi's unrelenting hands slide beneath his buttocks, earning him a halfhearted cry of complaint as they were lift from the sheets, the cry deepening into a lovely moan as the man takes him into his mouth, with every intention of relieving him of his misery._

_In. Out._

 

 

*

 

The butterflies needed less purple.

Hands suspended in mid-air, the robe-garbed man halted briefly as a soft noise came from beneath the mountain of blankets on his cot. Dabbing the last bit of the colored foreground of his painting and capping the paintbrush, Soubi rose to his feet to check on the second occupant of the bedroom.

" _Hey_ …"

Winding several strands of black hairs pooled out on his pillow around his index finger, Soubi bent over to place a mild kiss on the back of said hair. The owner shifted at the feel, exposing his face, and sneezed the instant a couple strands of ash-blond swept across his ticklish nostrils.

"That was too cute."

Soubi smiled as Ritsuka grumbled at the jib sarcastically, keeping his eyes shut tight, " _Rrrmm…what a nice way to wake up_."

"Are you feeling any different this morning?"

Other than flushing hotly, the teenager made no other physical sign that he knew what Soubi was talking about— not willing to allow the other the satisfaction of knowing that he was rendering his actions that to the level of a schoolgirl who just lost her virginity.

Ritsuka sat up. And grimaced. "Ow."

"Where does it hurt?"

"Not where you're thinking." He snapped impatiently at the secretive way his Fighter smiled again— _damn it all_ — and brushed the material of his nightshirt, "I think I have a bruise on my stomach or something."

"You want me to inspect it?" Already touching the hem, the blond made to lift up Ritsuka's shirt before he was batted away callously. Ritsuka ordered, wrapping his arms around himself protectively. "Soubi. Just get dressed; we have to get the letter today."

Feeling bad shortly afterwards for using an unkind tone, Ritsuka waited until they both completely dressed for the trip with pullovers and full-length jackets.

Mumbling his apology under his breath, the younger man planted a firm hand on Soubi's neck and leaned up to push his lips back on cooler ones. When Soubi didn't react at all to the kiss, he frowned, "You didn't like it?"

Immediately, Ritsuka was cut short by more intense kiss, a overfriendly tongue delving into his mouth and he would have been more then happy to receive it if… _distracting_ fingertips weren't working their way past the buttons of his jeans.

"Sou-Soubi! We ha-have to go… _stop_ …"

A heated whisper into his ear carnal, "Order me." He groaned, torn between the ballooning sensation of lust Soubi's fingers were devilishly creating and his rationality.

" ** _WHY_!"**

A large grocery bag full of microwavable dinner trays and beer cans skid, spilling chaotically across the floor. The new arrival beat a fist onto the wall, dramatically near tears. "What did I _say_ about keeping the door _locked_ when you two are going at it? _Why is it always **ME**_!?"

Trying to remember where he had experienced this scene before, Ritsuka contemplated the strongest vibes of déjà vu as Soubi took his hand good-naturedly, leading him for the front door, "I think it's time we leave. Kio—" He turned to the frenzied man composedly before exiting, "please clean up your mess."

 

 

*


	12. Chapter 12

*

 

On their way across town, people began avoiding them.

Whether it had been their appearance— obviously determined adults lacking innocence left in their still unbending features— or the acute power and vibrancy swirling in undetectable pulses in and out of their auras; strangers, both young and old took notice. And did their best to stay out of their path.

 

*

 

On the ceiling of the bubblegum-pink, ground-level circular playground tube, another cream-colored envelope waited for him, taped and untouched.

The sixteen-year-old crawled out to warily lift out the note addressed to him, his long-haired companion not bothering to glance over as his leather gloved hands fumbled momentarily for his lighter.

Before Soubi could ignite the butt of a 'borrowed' morning cigarette from Kio, his Sacrifice beat him to his turn, holding one of the corners of the note over the open flame and watching monotonously as black and brown ashes curled into the grass. Wine-purple held a even gaze to the flame.

"We should leave now."

 

 

Ritsuka,

Meet me at our old elementary school. We have a lot to discuss.

\- Seimei

 

 

*

 

"Do I get to kill him?"

Picking the tip of his razor switchblade between his dirty fingernails, the stringy black-haired man stepped back respectfully almost as an automatic reaction to the shorter figure in the dark green, wool trench coat passing him, staring out the triple windows.

"As long as you don't get in the way of Ritsuka, you are free to do as you wish."

Nisei said with mock disappointment, leaning down on one of the dusty, rotting school desks with a free hand, "I can't kill him, too?"

Semiei's eyes flickered once ominously, unnoticed to his Fighter and if his tail had be exposed, the thin, black hairs would have been bristling.

"No. You cannot."

Asking no more on the sensitive subject, making a wise decision in understanding that it would be pushing it too far, Nisei shrugged carelessly. "Whatever. So why did you pick this dump?" He knocked the desk behind him loudly with the sole of his boot. "Got some kind of warped sentimental inkling for it?"

"To put it so unsophisticatedly, perhaps." His older Sacrifice never looked away from the chipped and cracked glass windows until an unfamiliar, high pitch frequency trickled into their hearing. Nisei clicked shut his switchblade, forgetting about a stray rat he was about to experiment with when the noise slammed into his cranium.

He wrinkled his nose, other then that seemingly unaffected by the severeness. "Fuck. They're early."

"Remember what I said. Second floor and no higher." The other man did not need to explain the consequences of disobeying his commands, turning up the high collar of his coat and disappearing into the outside stairwell.

Strolling out into the corridor, Nisei whistled cheerfully, scraping his reopened weapon screeching against the brick walls. Half expecting to lure his prey. Within moments, the other Fighter unit came into view by the school's front double-door entrance.

He grinned maniacally, spreading open his arms in pretend welcome. "Well, well, I didn't guess you two would show so fast. You don't waste time, do you?" The stringy man pointed the blade to the teenager who remained unmoved. "You've got company upstairs on the next floor. Why don't you leave Mommy and Daddy to talk, kiddo?"

"Does that make you the woman?"

Soubi gripped Ritsuka by the shoulder a little to silence him as Nisei howled, amusement visible in his facial expression as his cracked lips twisted up to reveal more uncared-for, yellowing teeth. "You've got guts, punk. Don't make me break the rules and decide to carve them out. I don't think my Master would approve. So why don't you be a good boy and get into the staircase before I change my mind?" He motioned to the hallway behind him again with the silver, glinting switchblade.

The blond clasped Ritsuka's hand into his own and simply bent forward to press his mouth against another smaller and familiar, openly and commanding and offering renewal of the strength of their bond. Another painful inflammation seared against the skin of Ritsuka's stomach. Soubi's cool, demanding lips left him hungry again for the comforting feeling as the couple separated. For a second in time, Ritsuka imagined that his Fighter would not let him go, wrapping them more securely between longer, larger digits.

Soubi's eyes widened in sincere astonishment as Ritsuka, in an uncomplicated deed, kissed his fingertips and boldly worked them underneath the tattered bandages covering his neck scars and to _BELOVED_ , in the process unbinding them.

Discarding the last of the gauze, his Sacrifice convinced him to be released from his possessive clutches. Not wavering his attention from Nisei or the switchblade as Ritsuka walked by the murderer, secretly hating the way his large, black eyes drifted purposefully over the earless teen from head to foot, betraying just how blood-lustful he truly was.

Lavender eyes narrowed critically.

"Sentoki system initiated."

 

*

  
  


_What was that smell?_

_Burnt flesh?_

Ritsuka covered his nose with his sleeve as he made his approach onto the third floor, his throat clenching up strangely. Eyes beginning to water and roll in their sockets, the newly-made adult struggled against abandoning the use of his legs and letting the impulse to throw up overcome him.

Stumbling into one of the right-hand classrooms, gagging and squeezing his eyes shut, he found solid grip with the edge of an empty student desk. The rancid scent now replaced by the bland odor of gasoline and smoke. Sitting patiently only two feet away on the teacher's desk, Seimei Aoyagi observed his little brother's responses with cold easiness.

 

_Smoke. Why was it always smoke?_

Dark, velvet eyes reopened.

" _I...I_ saw you burn."

Seimei chuckled but without pleasure in its quality.

"Maybe you did," he said.

 

*

 

Another beaming white manacle clattered around Soubi's ankle. Nisei grinned triumphantly, proclaiming, "That's two more and I've got total restraint on you, loser." He yawned exaggeratedly. " _Damn_... I can't see why Seimei would keep you around for so long."

The blond man smiled little, tucking away his glasses. "You would rather fight using knives and fists where deceiving your enemy is at the highest bidder," he said aloud. "There is no honor in your game."

"Blah, blah, _blah_. I wanna kill you already. Let's go. "

Nisei summoned his spell into the cosmic battlefield.

" _Growing as a storm builds overhead, heat increasing, strike the one who is weakened!"_

 

*

 

Just as the earless teenager regained control over his stomach's contents, his older brother's attitude changed in attempt to still his slight trembling with a warm clasping embrace. His long, snug arms around his smaller body began rubbing the length of his back as if Ritsuka were no more than a child.

Seimei murmured into his ear, kindly nuzzling his nose into his soft hair— the motion too memorable for words, "I've missed you."

" _No. . ._ "

"No?" He pulled away, staring down at his little brother's bowed head.

" _You can't. . .talk to me like this._ " The cat-man watched again silently as Ritsuka stepped back from him, shaking his head slowly and obviously agitated. "Why. . .did you do it? Why did you take my memories, Seimei?"

Indigo eyes blinked coolly.

"I had no doubt in my mind that you wouldn't figure out with or without any help. But asking me something you already know yourself is just foolish, Ritsuka."

" _I don't know **anything**! I'm tired of everyone thinking I know what's going on! I just want to know why you lied to me, why you left and you let me believe you were dead_?"

Ritsuka buried the side of his face into his left hand, fighting back the wildest urge to burst into frustrated tears. Both Aoyagi brothers were nearly the same height now so it would have been hard for Seimei to miss his crumpling face. The older sibling said shrewdly, "I had to protect you."

Disbelieving eyes snapped open.

"Protect me from— _what_? What were you protecting me from? _A normal life!_?"

"No, Ritsuka. From your own memories." Ritsuka's chest flared up with a tingling, burning sensation. _No. Stop._ Seimei's voice was doing this to him and at the furtherest portion of his mentality, Ritsuka wished he had stayed with Soubi downstairs. _Please. No more attacks._

"Things happened that you weren't meant to see. Things that weren't meant to happen to you."

Seimei looked for a moment lost and the younger shook his head furiously, as if to rattle all of Seimei's excuses from processing his brain, "You tried to take advantage of me. You _drugged_ me." The cat-man recovered from exposing his emotions to smirk for the first time, recalling calmly, "And in turn, you responded to me touching you."

The teenager flushed humiliated and his big brother laughed quietly. As his ice-cold fingers swept Ritsuka's bangs away from his forehead dotingly, he caught sight of the **B. E. L. O. V. E. D** printed down the base of Seimei's middle right finger.

"I sometimes think that we should have shared a name. Since you were an infant, I called you my baby. You weren't Mother's or Father's baby. You were mine and only mine. A couple nights early on I almost stole you from your crib and ran away; there were a couple places I could have raised you by myself. And I would have done it sooner if I had known how Mother was going to turn out."

"So you weren't the cause of that?"

Seimei replied to the inquiry not meant to be spoken aloud, and to Ritsuka it sounded somewhere between being cryptic and honest, "If I had been, she wouldn't have laid a finger on you." The same cold fingers skimmed the flesh of his healed neck. His little brother recoiled from him, doubt returning.

"What about things you've done to the others? Why are people so afraid of you, Seimei? This woman working at the Fighter's academy. . . 7 and Natsuo said you killed her. Seimei, you _killed_ a human life."

"Nisei took Nagisa-san's life."

"But you _allowed_ it. I can't. . .understand. . ." Ritsuka's body longed to shudder as he whispered, gleaming but not damp eyes glued to the charred floorboards, ". . .who was in the chair instead of you?"

When silence was the only answer given to him, he snarled weakly, ripping his stare from the floor and sent it glaring at his brother, " _Who. Was. In. The. Chair_?"

Darkened indigo eyes never faltered or expressed sympathy. This new Seimei had no regrets.

"A nobody. One of the janitors happened to be inside the building and I took my opportunity as I saw fit."

Ritsuka couldn't believe what he was hearing. Now unable to suppress his violent shaking, he swayed slightly on his feet before grabbing the edge of the desk once more and kneeling to the filthy floor.

"I did what I had to for us."

"You speak murder and love in the same breath." The earless boy panted heavily, trying his best not to think of Soubi at that moment and the impressions he associated with him.

Many being certain: how Yuiko's vanilla shampoo, the color of the orchids at the park, and the smoking man at the coffee shop each time on his laptop filing company reports and swearing under his breath when Ritsuka bought breakfast reminded him of his Sentoki. How the shifting of Soubi's flesh against his torso had made him hard even though they already made love that evening. And how even when being infuriated by his countless amount of weird quirks could somehow never deter him long enough from wanting to see his face again later. Many being not; keeping secrets even after the truth was told. Still being able to make him cry at the worst possible moment. And never saying 'I love you' every other minute in the day anymore.

Rubbing his eyes absently, Ritsuka mumbled, "I can't trust those people. You hurt Soubi. You abused him. No matter what you might try to tell me, you lied—and I believed it all."

No longer having the energy to stay mad, he hung his arms over the desk, and focused only on deepen his alarmingly shallow breathing. Ritsuka flinched, sucking in an breath as Seimei caressed the longer locks of the back of his hair - meant to be reassuring and feeling phony.

"Do you want to see it? Do you want those memories I still keep from you, the ones I believed would haunt you until the day you leave this world — tell me if you want them."

" _I don't care about that anymore..._ " Why didn't he understand? The teenager sniffled, raising his hand again to push against his eyelids, to forcefully stop tears from forming and hesitated when Seimei grabbed the same hand, helping him up to stand.

"You mean the world to me, Ritsuka. You are my equal. The only person worthy to stand beside me. What I've done was to bring us closer and to protect you from the evil keeping us apart." Lifting it to his upturning lips, he touched them to Ritsuka's knuckles and bestowed a tiny kiss to the space of his palm lovingly.

"Ritsuka, there is nothing I wouldn't give you if you desired it enough. Everyone else is insignificant to me and nothing more than toys. I knew you would become attached to Soubi because I was not there, but that situation can be remedied." Ritsuka's eyes ticked up a notch in dazed recognition. The man with the knife downstairs.

_something..._

Seimei went on, gently cupping his chin, "We can put this all behind us, all those nasty memories—"

_bad..._

His brother's eyes, considered as dark in color but was kind and strong in his earliest memories, flashed with a animal-like light Ritsuka himself could not draw himself from. "— _and you won't resist me, Loveless_."

 

*

 

" _Damn it_!"

The glinting switchblade went spinning to Soubi's feet. All three shackles clinking as he picked it up mutely. Nisei protested but his voice was nothing but a muffled tunnel in Soubi's ear canal.

— _The only reason Seimei could control you as well as he could was not because he was born to be your Sacrifice, but because of your willingness to please him and his name that remains carved into your skin_ —

He felt his own blood flow, weighing down the front of his sweater as _BELOVED_ was sliced horizontally, the pain nothing but a reminder of what needed to be done.

_To be free..._

"You want to die that much?" The other Fighter watched fascinated as the red droplets collected onto the ground.

_To be with Ritsuka...is all I want._

 

*

 

Cashmere and lavender.

At first Ritsuka numbly believed it was the combination of both aromas freezing his entire frame in place, the permeating smell seeping into his nostrils and stupefying everything from the muscles in his toes to his heartbeat.

Holding up his sibling's face, Seimei locked his impatient mouth over closed, tense lips, swinging an arm around his victim and strained their chests against each other. Artless in this type of position, the older did nothing more then breathe against Ritsuka's fastened jaw and stiffen his arm around his body.

The tears building in wine-colored eyes loosened as several strands of moisture trickled free.

_'Soubi.'_

Feeling the teenager against him begin to sink to the ground, Seimei broke the spell he had on him and opened his mouth to speak. A booming _CRASH!_ somewhere in the building made his head jerk up thus giving the other male an opportunity to escape. Ritsuka made out the staircase onto the first floor before his brother snatched his left arm and wretched him back.

Only a couple feet away, his ash-blond Fighter had his back to him, standing in a puddle of what looked like blood.

" _SOUBI_ — _rrgh, NO_ _! Stop it_ — _Soubi, help me_!"

"Starting the party without me?" Nisei shouted over Ritsuka as Seimei fling his little brother at the wall, the boy grasping at his head as he went down onto the floor. The psychopath stopped cackling when out of nowhere Soubi's hand sealed around his face and squeezed as hard as he could. Now screaming bloody murder, the Fighter for Beloved used the rest of his vigor to steal back his switchblade and at the same time, the blond threw him backwards.

Wheeling down, Nisei lost the sense of where to grip his own weapon.

After a minute or two, Seimei tut disappointed at the impaled corpse before meeting Soubi's eyes.

"Another broken toy. You on the other hand don't appear to know when you are defeated, even when you are bleeding to death." His hardened eyes strayed over the injury over the front of Soubi's throat. "You think scratching out the name I have given you will release you from my influence?"

Soubi adjusted his crooked glasses over the bridge of his nose, smiling with confidence in a way that his previous Sacrifice knew didn't exist around his time. "We'll have to see."

Behind them, Ritsuka managed to crawl up onto his knees.

 

* * *

_"But it requires the controller to be the same or higher level of the person being controlled and for that to be acknowledged beforehand."_

* * *

_"You mean the world to me, Ritsuka. You are my equal. The only person worthy to stand beside me."_

* * *

 

Wine-purple squeezed shut, damp eyelashes quivering.

". . . _Beloved_."

He really didn't think this was going to work. Soubi would be under Seimei's control again, and Ritsuka would have failed. And it appeared to be so when neither men reacted to Ritsuka speaking out, slowly rising up and centering all his focus in the direction of his big brother.

Ritsuka stretched out one of his hands, repeating this time with more force, gritting his teeth, " ** _Beloved. I hold control over your name. You will look at me_**."

Sluggishly, mechanically, Seimei's body faced him.

The badly shaking teen strived to keep his shock restrained, Soubi's unbridled amazement from sidetracking him as he addressed him again, _" **Beloved. I maintain control over your name. Reveal to me the location of Youji Sagan**._ "

In the same fashion, he answered, motionless and unblinking, "Fifth floor. Seventh door to the left of the South staircase."

Internally and deeply horrified by how dead, how obedient Seimei's manner continued to be, Ritsuka almost didn't follow through with his objective— just to terminate this charade— his outstretched hand never stopped steady as much as his own voice, sounding as dead as Seimei. Maybe it was better that way...

_" **Beloved. I maintain control over your name. All of your memories, past and present, belong me to alone. You no longer have use of them. Your real name is Ritsuka Aoyagi, age twenty one, only son of Misaki and Seiji**_ _**Aoyagi**."_

Ritsuka's eyes dimmed out, slowly as if he himself were indeed dying.

 _" **You never wanted a sibling. And you love your Mother very much. You won't remember anything that happened when you wake up**."_ He readied his thumb and index finger. _" **Sleep**_."

He had no idea how long he stood there, stuck in that position between snapping his fingers and pausing while Seimei collapsed in the hallway. Ritsuka made a motion like he was going to move until Soubi came into view, gathering his hands into his own blood-stained. "He might response to it."

"They are my memories now," Ritsuka whispered.

The man surveyed him distracting himself with examining Soubi's reddened, sticky fingers, and then the nasty gash in his neck. "You need to clean this...it might... _get infected_..." Ritsuka bit his trembling lower lip, gasping huskily once and mere seconds later, hugging against Soubi as another fit of crying stole him.

Worried that it was an effect of their bond, that the boy could feel the throat mutilation as well, Loveless's Fighter hugged his Sacrifice against his fur jacket. "Where does it hurt, Ritsuka?"

 

*

 

_"Where does it hurt, Ritsuka?"_

_Hot, dark liquid dripped from his mouth, his tongue throbbing in spiked pain as the child spit out the clod of food onto his plate. Specks of blood mixed with the vegetables and rice. Half resting in the clod, a double-edge razor blade._

_"What? You don't like my cooking, Ritsuka-kun? You...worthless brat." A dark-haired woman gripped the child by the forearm, almost lifting him from his seat and twisted it behind him roughly, her demeanor changing to maniac in matter of seconds. "I SLAVE OVER A HOT STOVE EVERY DAY TO FEED YOU AND THIS IS HOW YOU THANK ME?!"_

_Shoving aside plates, bowls, and utensils onto the kitchen floor, Misaki Aoyagi held up a dinner fork over his head threateningly._

_"Mother. I'm home."_

_Now earnestly grinning, the housewife dropped the fork with a metallic_ clang _and Ritsua who crawled under the table, as she came forward to her eldest son at a standstill in the doorway to the room, embracing him as if nothing were wrong. "Seimei-kun! You are home early! Do you want anything to eat?"_

_He did not return the hug, but eyed the mess on the floor. "Father is on the phone. He wishes to speak to you."_

_Not relenting on her cheerful nature, Misaki disappeared into the next room._

_The-nine-year old boy prodded aside some destroyed plates to crouch down to where the younger still curled against the stand of the kitchen table. Taking a napkin from above him, Seimei touched the fabric against his little brother's bloody lips. "Open your mouth, Ritsuka."_

_Tentatively, the five-year-old stuck out his tongue, more thin streams of blood drizzling down his chin._

_"This might hurt, okay?" The older tenderly patted the wound, causing the first to yelp and Seimei instructed kindly, smiling, "Hold this to your tongue. I'm going to get your things."_

_As they made their way into the next yard without being seen by their parents or anyone outdoors with a small grey tote of Ritsuka's clothes and belongings, the cat-boy shifted his sibling onto his hip and knocked uncertainly on the front door. An old graying woman answered, eyes immediately drawn to the child in his arms with a bloody napkin in his mouth. As the wrinkles on her forehead became_ _prominent, she sighed. Like this was a normal, reoccuring event. "You really must tell someone about this, young man."_

_"He needs to stay overnight. See, I have his stuff," Seimei offered it up to her, young eyes_ _almost pleading. "Just one night, please."_

_"By the good graces above, you know I could never refuse you kids." Their neighbor smiled_ _thoughtfully at_ _the little boy who smiled back shyly, cat ears twitching, and she took the tote. "Just be careful going home." Seimei nodded quickly, preparing to let little Ritsuka on his feet and chuckled nervously when his tiny grip on his striped tee-shirt braced. "I'll be right next door. I think Hidaka-chama has some new coloring books for you to play with."_

_Small, purple eyes drifted between the neighbor and his brother apprehensively. The woman placed her shawl over the child's shoulders. "Come in inside before you get cold, sweetie. Do you like taffy?"_ _The little cat boy nodded, slipping his thumb into his mouth and holding up his hand for her to take._

_As Seimei set him down, he planted a firm kiss to the top of his head. "I love you Ritsuka."_

 

*

 

_"Where has my Ritsuka-kun gone off to?"_

_At the dinner table, Misaki peered around confused at the absence of one of her children. Her husband on her right saying nothing as he bit into some of the dumpling, and the ten-year-old on her left flicking the dull  dining knife in his hands. Out of the corner of his eye, Seimei saw his Fighter_ — _a blond preteen_ — _smoking outside the front gates. Stupid idiot. What did he say about hanging around when he wasn't wanted?_

_"Seimei-kun?"_

_He lied dismally, flicking the knife harder as it made a louder tinny noise, "He's playing with some kids at a neighbor's house."_

_His Mother frowned at him. "You really should have brought him in to eat. I made something extra special for him tonight." She frowned more as he continued to resume interest in only the metal utensil in his hands. "What's the matter?" she asked.  
_

_"I don't know. Put any razors into the food lately?" he said bitterly, flipping the rim of his knife with his thumbnail._

_His father reached out and snatched it from him; with his other hand, he dug his fingers into his wrist. "How dare you talk to your Mother that way, boy!" Seimei clenched his jaw, not uttering so much as a whimper as the skin around his wrist turned an angry red color,. And you better not be speaking anymore lies about this family. I've had it up to hear with your bullshit, do you understand me?"_

_Avoiding his father's beady eyes, Seimei kept his mouth shut even as the grasp increased excruciatingly. The older man repeated, this time more softer but no less harsher, "I said, do you understand?"_

I can endure this.

_Annoyed with his lack of a response, he send his son toppling onto the tiled floor by hurling him aside and letting go of his wrist. "You better start acting your age, brat. And stop lying on the floor, this is supper. If you want to sleep, go upstairs."_

I can endure this.

_Kneeling on the floor, Seimei laughed quietly to himself._

 

*

 

_"Are you refusing my request?"_

_Dusky lilac eyes peered out through glowing blue lenses reflecting a laptop screen. Seimei stared back into them from the front of Ritsu's desk evenly, fearlessly. "I will not be used as a tool for your_ Academy _." And as an afterthought, he straightened up and fiddled with the buttons on his shirt sleeves." And Loveless stays out of your plans as well."_

_The man behind the desk notified him, "You don't have the authority to demand the Seven Moons of anything, need I remind you. You could be put to death if you get in the way."_

_"And so could Soubi. But I already know about those circumstances, your twisted need to ensure that nothing terribly life-crippling happens to him and that's why you watch me. Of course, nothing I've done to Soubi has been as terrible as rape." Older indigo eyes stared back into glowing lenses challengingly, haughtily. "Am I mistaken?"_

_Seventeen-year-old Seimei smirked, heading for the office door. "Believe me, I'll hear about you and your organization. Your hired Fighter units. I've got connections as well." He made a pleased noise in his throat as Ritsu slammed down his laptop._ _"You can't have Loveless."_

 

*

 

_The burning sensation went straight up his right arm. The bold letters spelling out his name plainly seen in the semi-dark of his old bedroom. The twenty-two year old almost lost his grip on the syringe and he pocketed the rest of the drug._

_Outside, his true Fighter was staring down at his own middle finger."You felt it too?" Nisei questioned. He took the silence between them as a confirmation and he asked, almost curiously,_ _"That mean we really are connected?"_

_Seimei's eyes never left the bedroom window above._

_"I am connected to no one."_

 

*


	13. Chapter 13

 

*

 

He could still remember the moment with unnatural clarity.

Among the rows of clean and proper brick apartments, the only two imperative bodies moving across the street smiled genuinely to each other and came up the driveway to a familiar-looking wood front door. His mother said something the adult could not hear from a distance, but to his brother— _no, that's not true anymore_ — _**Ritsuka** _ laughed at it with enthusiasm.

"Where is your Father?"

To answer the person behind him, the original Ritsuka Aoyagi never took his eyes from his previous family even as they disappeared from sight into the house. "I saw him leave with a couple suitcases. He's never coming back to the place."

" _He's safe here…"_

Soubi grew slightly uneasy by the still present far-away haze in purple eyes as he drew closer to his Sacrifice. And how effortlessly Ritsuka could ignore the title of his older brother. " _I still don't understand. Even with all of his memories…I don't_ —"

"— Youji and Natsuo are feeling better now that they are back together." The older interrupted purposely, touching the teen's arm, "Youji is healing faster now that he's had rest. Kio asked if we don't mind keeping them at the apartment until the end of the week. They've been given the key so they should be there already."

Blinking several times rapidly, the first made a small noise of distress low in his chest.

"Ritsuka?"

"Let's just go." Ritsuka ordered dispassionately, snatching him by his sweater sleeve and yanking him along as he sped up into a power walk across the avenue. After two blocks, Ritsuka started to slow.

Lavender eyes stared back at the younger boy absently rubbing his abdomen area with his left hand. "Your stomach still hurts?" Soubi asked.

"The skin feels like its on fire...or something..." Ritsuka's eyes shot wide open as his Fighter caught him off-guard, lifting up his green vest and the jersey beneath to observe his lean frame. _"Soubi! What the heck...you can't just_ — _!"_

"Look, Ritsuka."

Printed in bold black English characters, in a line ending just above the cranny of his bellybutton:

**L. O. V. E. L. E. S. S.**

As the teenager lifted the other's man sweater up by the heavy fabric edge, the very same name greeted his vision. He glanced at Soubi's fresh bandages on his neck.

_It. . .worked._

Without thinking, Ritsuka moved closer to him and in turn, both names lit up simultaneously.

"What happens if they touch...?" Soubi's verbalized inquiry brought an onset of hot flush gripping the young man's features. He protested reluctantly when the bespectacled adult wrapped his long arms around him. The sound of light foosteps thankfully came to distract them. To their right, 7 with a large knapsack in hand watched the scene with doctile interest.

Hoping to shield his embarrassment, Ritsuka tugged back down his shirt.

And after a moment, he instinctively did the same to Soubi's and the older man smirked coming across as extremely satisfied.

Severe green eyes behind oval glasses lenses held a mild staring contest with the still amused man before staring much longer at Ritsuka, directing her question to him,"Did you find your answers?"

Sombering up, he replied in all seriousness, breaking from Soubi's embrace, "I don't want them anymore."

The young, blonde woman tightened her hold on her knapsack, revealing how far her betrayal went in her cracking voice, "I can't go back to the Academy. Sensei allowed Nagisa-chan and I to be attacked. I cannot forgive him for that. "

"He's still alive?"

She nodded curtly at Soubi. "Indeed." Then proceeded to appear thoughtfully, fidgeting with the strap on her shoulder. "It's very strange. . .after I arrived at Kio-kun's apartment, I recieved a phone call from a particularly perky-sounding woman who called herself Yamato. She offered up an apartment to stay if I didn't mind sharing it with herself and her girlfriend."

Ritsuka hid a smile behind his hand that she never noticed. "Good luck to you."

"And to you both as well. I will not be seeing you again." 7 waved slightly as she eventually walked and vanished into traffic to begin her journey towards the main highway.

 

*

 

 _"GET THE HELL OFF THE FLOOR IDIOT_ — _IT'S NOT CUTE_ —AND _GO TAKE A SHOWER!"_

 _"I AM_ SO _CUTE, YOU TOLD ME THAT LAST NIGHT! AND WHAT ARE YOU_ — _MY MOTHER!? MAKE ME!"_

Three or four very loud crashes soon followed after the two separate yells from the Zero Boys resided from within the cramped apartment room. Soubi scratched the back of his head, not looking predominately pleased or displeased. "If they don't calm down, the neighbors will complain about the noise."

"Maybe we should go to the park or something until they've calmed down," Ritsuka suggested from below from the sidewalk as Soubi made his way down the creaking outdoors staircase.

"Whatever you want, Ritsuka."

Frowning, he said, "It's what you want too. You don't have to always agree."

His boyfriend smirked again, saying evenly but teasingly, "Understood, my Master."

There was no conversation until they reached the park gates. Ritsuka forgot his annoyance when they hiked across the grass and some of the autumn park trees. Amongst the fully blossomed flowers, a rarely colored, bluish-purple butterfly flew rapidly out of the corner of Ritsuka's eye.

He took Soubi's hand silently.

_I wish I had brought my camera._

"Soubi. You never tell me you love me anymore."

His Sentoki asked calmly, letting slip nothing, "Do you miss hearing it?" Wine-colored eyes avoided his own almost as if ashamed to disclose his own emotions so unguarded.

"I just want to hear it knowing you are saying it with your heart, and not because someone told you to."

Cool, tobacco-scented fingers cradled his face before turning it back to focus into lavender eyes. Soubi smiled— _not mocking, not superiorly smirking_ — and said with honesty the boy couldn't mistaken, "I love you, Ritsuka."

Not wasting a minute to suspense, Ritsuka tilted his head and claimed his Fighter's mouth for his control, raising up on his tiptoes for added height and moaning aloud with approval when the familiar warm cavity allowed him passage. The burning of his real name replaced with the soaring feeling he got whenever he kissed Soubi, like his body was weightless and he could forget all of his sorrows and regrets. Disappointing him momentarily, Soubi pulled away, surprisingly enough breathing a bit heavily, "You've got school tomorrow."

Never taking his hungry eyes from those pale lips and right before jerking his warm lover's body right back against him, he mumbled partly mesmerized, ". . .Yuiko will give me the notes."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Hn."

The cat man paused with his black and blue Converse sneaker on the foot pedal to his bicycle, gazing over at his troubled companion. "Huh?" One of his closest friends, a brunette cat girl with pigtails, pointed across the large park to a male couple in each other's arms underneath a tree.

"The shorter one looks a lot like you, Ritsuka."

He scrutinized his so-called doppleganger, after a few quiet moments, wrinkled his nose. "I think you've been watching too much television. It's starting to rot your brain."

She motioned at him irritably, eyes still fixed on the intimate setting. "They sure look cozy who ever they are. Don't they know this is a public place?" Uninterested and quickly becoming less by the second, the black-haired cat man blew a strand of hair out of his face.

"Hey, I thought we were biking."

"Okay... _okay._.." The cat girl started wheeling down the dirt path as he lingered behind. Fascinated, he peered at an innocent butterfly that landed next to his other sneaker, the strangest color combination of purple and dark blue. Noticing his hesitation from several feet away, his friend called to him.

Grinning darkly, he crushed it with the sole of his shoe.

_"Ritsuka, what's the holdup?"_

She pumped her way back, skidding to a stop and making a sympathetic sound for the poor creature near his sneaker, "Is that what you were staring at? How terrible. Who would do such a horrible thing?"

Overlooked, indigo-colored eyes flickered. . .and almost misjudged as sneering in nature.

"It was just a butterfly."

 

 

*


End file.
